When you think of Tainan food , what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Many people's answer may be "beef soup", but there are obviously a lot of local snacks in Tainan. Why does beef soup seem to be so popular? Let’s talk about “Tainan Beef Soup” today! Hiho~ Hello everyone, I am Zhiqi! Many people may have "beef soup" on their list of things to eat when they go to the food city of Tainan. In order to eat beef soup, many people will start queuing up before the store opens for the "2024 Most Wanted Snacks in Tainan" organized by Linetoday earlier this year. ?" Beef soup also won the first place in the online voting event, significantly ahead of other Tainan snacks . Moreover, this "Tainan beef soup" craze is not only crazy among Taiwanese , it has also attracted international attention. From 2022 to 2023, Michelin The guide's "Bib Gourmand" has successively nominated 4 Tainan Beef Soup restaurants. CNN in the United States also listed Tainan as one of the "2024 Best Tourism Cities in the World" in January this year, and also named Tainan as the "Taiwan Street Food Capital". The article also introduces two local delicacies: one is oyster omelette and the other is beef soup . But in fact, beef soup is not strictly a "traditional food" but a very recent dish . So where does Tainan beef soup come from? ? How did it become such a popular "Tainan representative snack"? So what do locals in Tainan think of beef soup? But before we start today’s discussion, let’s go into some business service time! [Tainan beef soup, what’s so great about it? 】 One of the biggest features of Tainan beef soup is the use of "warm-body beef". Since Tainan has the country's largest Shanhua slaughterhouse, restaurants in Tainan can often quickly get fresh beef that is slaughtered and delivered directly on the same day. Some food reviews say that compared with The beef that has been refrigerated or frozen is fresh and warm. The beef is more tender and tastes sweeter. In order to cook it fresh, many stores will start business after getting the meat early in the morning. Besides "beef", there is another type of Tainan beef soup. The key element is "soup". Soups can be roughly divided into three categories: the classic refreshing vegetable and fruit soup base made from beef bones and the medicated soup base with Chinese herbal medicines added. Each store has its own unique flavor that will be fresh. The warm-bodied beef is sliced into thin slices, and then the meat slices are cooked with boiling hot soup to complete the beef soup. In this process, how the store accurately controls the thickness of the meat slices, the amount, and the soup temperature to cook the beef to just the right degree of doneness are also talked about by gourmets. What I am happy to say is that this kind of beef soup is often not found on the menus of many time-honored restaurants in Tainan such as "Axia Hotel" or "Ami Hotel". Some people even say that beef soup is not actually a "traditional" food . What happened again? [Tainan beef soup, where does it come from? 】 Some historians believe that Tainan beef soup is not a real traditional food but a so-called "invented tradition", which means that it is not a "tradition" that has a long history but a "tradition" that was created in relatively recent times . The scholar further explained: "Most of the traditional snacks in Tainan that we are familiar with" "For example, milkfish porridge, danzi noodles, bowl cakes, etc." "Almost all were made during the Dutch rule, Ming and Qing Dynasties" "With the development of colonial and immigrant culture " It is a traditional snack that has accumulated hundreds of years of history." However, the history of Tainan beef soup may not even be a hundred years old. Although there are different opinions on the origin of "beef soup" and it may no longer be known, some research points out that it was due to Taiwan's traditional agriculture in the past. In the past , most Taiwanese people did not eat beef , let alone drinking beef soup. It was not until the government implemented the Westernization policy during the Japanese occupation that more and more people in Taiwan gradually began to eat beef. Around the 1940s, The first beef soup restaurant recorded in history appeared in Tainan at the end of the Japanese colonial period. After the Kuomintang government came to Taiwan, as Taiwan's economy shifted to industrial and commercial development, cattle were no longer needed for plowing the land. After that, the trend of not eating cattle in Taiwan further faded . The cattle market was gradually abolished. The cattle market in Shanhua, Tainan , later became a mere slaughterhouse and market . With this social change, more and more beef soup shops were opened. Beef soup first became a specialty for many workers in Tainan. It is a breakfast before physical work or a tonic for women during confinement. Beef soup became popular in Tainan around the mid-1990s. However, it seems that beef soup has only been popular in Tainan for 2 or 30 years. So what is it like? Has it become a very popular "Tainan specialty" in such a short period of time ? [How did beef soup become a famous specialty in Tainan? 】 Some analysts pointed out that the reason why beef soup has become so popular is related to the government's vigorous marketing. Scholars said that beef soup became popular in Tainan around the mid-1990s , and the Tainan government decided to hold a conference starting in 2004 in order to promote tourism and support the local beef industry. In the annual "Beef Festival", they not only bring together many stores to participate so that people can taste each store's fresh beef soup and beef dishes at one go , but the entire event will also continue to emphasize that "scalded beef soup" is unique to Tainan. Strengthening the impression of beef soup as "Tainan delicacy" . In addition to government promotion, the media's promotion is also a key factor in the popularity of beef soup. It is not only the publicity and exposure of traditional news, but also the effect of online marketing and publicity with the subsequent rise of social media. It is even more obvious that many gourmets who love Tainan Beef Soup will vigorously promote this delicacy on the Internet, such as the Facebook fan page "I want to conquer Tainan Beef Soup!" ! " So far, I have written food notes about more than 300 Tainan beef soup restaurants . In addition, there are many Internet celebrities and netizens who will check in and share on the Internet, making Tainan beef soup spread rapidly and even spread to hundreds of people. In recent years, the international food index Michelin Guide's "Bib Gourmand" blessing has gradually increased the international reputation of beef soup, which has also indirectly enhanced the representative status of beef soup in Tainan . However, in recent years, beef soup has become extremely popular. Later , there was also a group of voices that thought that many beef soup restaurants in Tainan were over praised [The long queues for Tainan beef soup, is it actually over praised? 】 On the Internet, from time to time, I will see netizens sharing, "I queued up to drink Tainan beef soup." "But I found that it was not as delicious as the legend said." "I felt very disappointed." I think the beef soup has been overrated . Under these opinions , we often see responses from Tainan netizens: "This is because" "Tourists queue up to eat at the 'famous' beef soup restaurant'" "This is not what Tainan people think of." "Really delicious beef soup restaurant" "Instead it became" " The phenomenon of "eating in line" at famous restaurants" However, some people think that this is not necessarily due to the "over-praised" establishment of the fanzine "I Want " by those well-known restaurants from the beginning. Conquer Tainan Beef Soup! " Beef Soup Master Zhang Xiaojun" believes that many stores may have lowered their food standards because of their popularity . Firstly, it may be because the large number of people makes it difficult for the stores to load. Secondly, it may be because the large number of people increases the business hours of the stores. Indirectly causing the meat quality of "warm-body beef" to decline. Therefore, he once made a sticker saying "It's a shame for Tainan people to queue up for beef soup" and posted it next to many beef soup queue shops to remind consumers not to be obsessed with famous restaurants and go to other well-known restaurants. In addition to encouraging you not to blindly pursue "famous beef soup restaurants " , many Tainan netizens also said that Tainan's delicacies are not limited to "beef soup" and urged everyone to eat more. " More Traditional Tainan Food So, what are the other “traditional” food in Tainan that have been around for a longer time ? 【Other "more traditional" snacks in Tainan? 】 In the ancient capital of Tainan, there are many traditional foods that have been passed down for hundreds of years , and these dishes also reflect the historical background of Tainan in different eras . For example, during the Dutch rule, many new ingredients were introduced to Taiwan , which shaped many traditional foods. For example, it is said that tomatoes were first introduced to Taiwan by the Dutch . At that time, Taiwanese people were not used to the taste of tomatoes, so they ate them with minced ginger and minced garlic to remove the smell. The result was that they tasted pretty good. Even today, there are many in Tainan. This combination is available in fruit stalls . According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the breeding technology of "milkfish" may have been introduced from the Chinese in Indonesia during the Dutch colonial period . Today, Tainan is also known as " Milkfish" because of the prevalence of milkfish farming . Milkfish is the hometown of milkfish, and milkfish porridge is one of the classic Tainan breakfasts. As for the Danzi noodles, which are hailed as a "national treasure" snack by many Tainanese , they appeared in the Qing Dynasty during the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the fisherman "Hong Taro" who immigrated to Tainan from Fujian "In order to make money to support the family during the months from July to September when typhoons are frequent and difficult to catch fish , which is commonly known as "Xiaoyue" by fishermen , he improved his hometown's noodle cooking method and started selling noodles along the street on a pole. This story is also called "Du Xiaoyue Danzi Noodles" "In addition, the origin of the name , traditional Tainan snacks such as rice cakes and rice cakes are special foods gradually developed from the interaction between the food culture of the Pingpu aborigines and Han immigrants. [Our point of view] Today we will focus on this episode This is because there are members of the team whose hometown is in Tainan , but I remember that when I was a child, every time I returned to Tainan during the Chinese New Year, there was almost no beef soup on the dining table. Even other beef dishes were not often seen when eating out. Therefore, I saw that in recent years, "Beef" "Soup Sheng Jing" I feel very curious and want to study how this phenomenon occurs . However, due to time constraints today, the content may not be very complete. We also welcome Tainan locals or Tainan beef soup experts to leave comments for us. oh! Having said that, after checking a round of information, we feel that the craze of "Tainan Beef Soup" is not only driven by the government and TV news reports , but also mainly relies on the power of social networks to have such a big topic like we are now. It is very common to rely on FB and IG food accounts to recommend delicious restaurants. In addition, modern people like to check in and share food photos from travels through posts , which are similar to the meaning of a trip here. When they are promoted and shared on the social network , they naturally create buzz for the store. However, perhaps because the history of beef soup is relatively short and there are people behind it who are deliberately marketing it, we have also seen some opinions that "beef soup" does not actually represent "Tainan traditional snacks". We feel that although the history of beef soup is indeed relatively Short , but if you don’t stick to the word "traditional", beef soup can also be regarded as a "Tainan representative snack". Like bubble milk tea , it only appeared in the 1980s , but no one should doubt that it is a drink that is representative of Taiwan. Thinking about it from another angle , maybe we are also witnessing the birth of a modern "classic" Tainan cuisine at this moment . Looking back a few decades from now, maybe the Tainan beef soup at that time will be as well-known as other Tainan cuisines with a long history. It’s called a “local traditional snack” . At the end of the video, we also want to ask you which local delicacy do you most want to eat when you go to Tainan? Finally, if you like today’s video, please share it so that more people know what Tainan Beef Soup is so popular about! In addition, you can also click here to read "Why is the food in Tainan so sweet?" and "Are all the Wagyu beef on the market real?" So, today's Zhiqi Qiqi ends here. See you tomorrow night!
