Prepping for research • A Cuisine Interview Record • Restaurant Interview Record • Working Progress • Special Thanks • References

◎Masai Aboriginal Restaurant Interview~About the cuisine (by Yu-hsuan Wang)

1. How do you attract customers with your menu? Which of the ways that you’ve spoken of works best?

A: By offering them unique Truku dishes. If customers want to know what our traditional foods are all about, we introduce and explain our cuisine in detail.

2. Which of your dishes are most popular? What do your customers like best about you? Why?

A: Every customer has his or her own preference, and we try our best to satisfy them all. Our most popular dishes include sweet potato, banana rice, sticky rice, bamboo rice, and because most customers are fond of staple foods, the top three bestsellers are bamboo rice, banana sticky rice, and sweet potato.

3. Do you serve more natural or processed foods? Why? Where do you purchase your ingredients?

A: We use a lot of natural ingredients, and fewer processed foods. The customers who visit our restaurant come here for natural food. Our vegetables are mostly home-grown or harvested from the wild.

4. How did you come up with the unique names for the dishes? Did you have any help?

A: Most dishes were named by our elders, but sometimes we learn from other people, take ideas we get from elsewhere, and think of unique names for our cuisine.

5. Why are bamboo rice made out of pure sticky rice, with no condiments at all? Are there any special reasons for this? Why?

A: If flavorings are added, the color of the rice will change, and sometimes, especially in summertime, condiments can cause the rice to go bad quickly or mold. Unflavored rice can stay good for up to two or three days

6. Which dish are you most deeply impressed with? Why?

A: Salted wild boar. Our marinade is different from most marinades available on the market, because we add a Truku traditional seasoning—makauy. The makauy is ground into a powder with a blender, then added to the marinade, making it more refreshing and more appetizing.

◎Masai Aboriginal Restaurant Interview~About marketing (by Yi-hsuan Lin)

1. How do you let customers learn about your aboriginal cuisine? What are your marketing routes?

A: Firstly, there is a tourist attraction nearby, the tour guides introduce restaurants offering aboriginal cuisine in the area, and that’s one way of getting customers to come.

Secondly, we advertise via the media, and let customers come to us on their own.

Lastly, we advertise through travel agencies and other organizations.

2. Do you raise your prices when the price of food goes up?

A: No, because we have a lot of wild vegetables, and if prices go up, we use more of our own homegrown vegetables, natural ingredients such as bird’s nest fern or vegetable fern.

3. What is the average price per dish in your restaurant? Which one is the most popular?

A: Meat dishes are usually around 250, while vegetables are 100 each. The tilapia is our bestsellers, and we have given it a beautiful name—the flower sculpted fish. Our tilapia is raised in mountain spring water, giving it a unique flavor, and because many customers have never enjoyed salt-baked tilapia, they find it really special. Tilapia is also good braised.

4. How do you treat your customers?

A: The customer always comes first, and good service always comes first. If customers are kind enough to give us suggestions, we must be humble and accept their criticism.

5. How do you introduce your dishes to your customers, so that they are attracted by your cuisine?

A: When we bring the dishes to the table, we introduce the origins and brief histories of the food, or tell stories connected with traditional culture. My daughter has received training in tour guiding, and is a very good story-teller.

6. Have your dishes been criticized by customers? How do you deal with it?

A: Some game meats have strong flavors, so I change the way I prepare the dish. Outside visitors often suggest that we use less oil in our cooking, and others not used to the flavor of game sometimes complain that the dishes have gone bad. We try to explain to them that it is the way these foods taste, and mollify these customers the best way we can.

7. What kind of customers visits your restaurant the most? Are there any regulars?

A: Yes, customers from outside counties come to me for their vacations every year.

◎Masai Aboriginal Restaurant Interview~About the experience (by Yu-qin Ma)

1. What made you decide to open a restaurant? Why did you choose to sell aboriginal food? How do you plan your manage your business?

A:

(1) I first wanted to open a fishing park with an open-air karaoke, but after the Mukumugi scenic spot opened in 1995, lots of outside visitors would come and tell my husband, “these are good surroundings, you should try open a restaurant!” My husband agreed because I was really interested in cooking and had his full support. Unfortunately, I lost my husband early this year, and have kind of lost the faith to carry on.

(2) There are no other unique local restaurants in this region, and tourists used to go over to Li-yu Lake for meals after visiting our area. However, the restaurants at Li-yu Lake are mostly common restaurants, whereas our restaurant is the first restaurant serving aboriginal cuisine. There is another one over in Tung-men, but that one serves health foods, not traditional cuisine. We considered the fact that there are no traditional restaurants in this region, and decided to open our own.

(3) I’ve been in the business for about 10 years now, but I haven’t enough employees, and am feeling a little discouraged because neither my daughter nor my husband is here to support me. I’d like to go back to a regular job, so I’ve been thinking, if anyone wants to take over, I would give it up gladly.

2. Did you receive a lot of support when you first decided to open a restaurant? Who were your supporters? How did they support you?

A:

(1) Of course I had a lot of support.

(2) My friends, my husband, and some local officers.

(3) They said, go ahead and try, you have our support, things like that.

3. What kind of difficulties did you meet with when you first opened the restaurant? What is your signature dish? How do you market your restaurant?

A:

(1) The hardest part was of course the money.

(2) Our signature dishes are traditional dishes like bamboo rice.

(3) We market mostly through Township office events that inform visiting tourists of our restaurant.

4. Did you learn to cook these dishes by yourself, or did anybody teach you? Did you find it difficult to learn to make these dishes?

A:

(1) I learned to cook from others, then brought ideas back and created my own dishes.

(2) It was difficult in the beginning because I had to consider the different tastes of different people, but once I got used it, it was no big deal.

5. What difficulties did you contend with in terms of cooking? How did you solve your problems?

A: When a certain ingredient in unavailable or not in season, I don’t sell that dish; many dishes are seasonable, so our menu changes accordingly.

6. Do you find work tiring, and do you work alone? Do you have any employees?

A: No, I don’t find it tiring, and I’m not alone because my family and tribespeople come to help me out.

◎Shang You Farm Restaurant Interview~About the cuisine (by Lan-chen Chiu)

1. How did your design your menu to attract customers? Out of the methods you’ve tried, which one works best?

A: Our cuisine specializes in health food that is pure, fresh, and free of additives because that’s the current food trend right now.

2. What is the bestseller on your menu? What do your customers like best? Why?

A: Most of our dishes are popular with our customers, but the bestsellers are salted wild boar and birds’ nest fern. Our ferns are tender because they are freshly harvested every day, and so are our fish, which are also incredibly fresh. 

3. Do you serve more natural foods or processed foods? Why? Where do you purchase your ingredients?

A: Of course they are natural! Only one thing out of our entire menu is processes, the salted wild boar that has to be marinated. Everything else is natural and fresh.

4. Your entire menu consists of traditional ingredients, do the dishes all have meanings or origins? Why?

A: While our customers enjoy their meals, Mr. Doyong goes over to each table and introduces the dishes to our customers.

5. How did you come up with the unique names for the dishes? Did you have any help?

A: Mr. Doyong helped me out of course! He is an aborigine while I am of Minnan origin, so I tend to follow the ways of the Minnan. Our service staff are also Minnan people, because fewer customers are used to the ways of the aboriginal people.

6. What are your favorite dishes? Why?

A: I like them all.

◎Shang You Farm Restaurant Interview~About marketing (by Hsue-ke Chiu)

1. How do you let customers learn about your aboriginal cuisine? What are your marketing routes?

A: The restaurant has its own website, and our menu is available for customers’ reference as well. In addition, we produce introductory guides, flyers, and utilize promotional events such as those the Truku cultural festivities held by our Township office, where the office assists us in advertising our business. Many outside visitors learn of our restaurant through these means and stop by for a taste of traditional Truku cuisine.

2. Do you raise your prices when the price of food goes up?

A: No, because you can’t raise prices at will.

3. How much do the meals at your restaurant cost? Which set menu is the most popular?

A:

(1) We have set menus of 2500~3000 per table.

(2) The 2500 set menu is the most popular.

4. How do you treat your customers?

A: You must be friendly and welcoming, and treat your customers with care. 

5. How do you introduce the dishes to your customers in order to attract their attention?

A: Our current strategy is to accept group reservations, and when the customers arrive, Mr. Doyong introduces the origins and stories behind each dish, so that in addition to enjoying traditional aboriginal meals, our customers can also learn a lot about aboriginal legends ands culture.

6. Have you received any criticism on your dishes? How did you deal with it?

A:

(1) Yes, baked fish, sometimes when we are too busy or forgetful, the fish isn’t roasted through.

(2) Of course we try to take their advice humbly and try to improve.

7. What kind of customer visits your restaurant? Are there any regulars?

A:

(1) We have regulars.

(2) Most of our customers come back again and again, and bring us new customers by sharing their experiences.

◎Shang You Farm Restaurant Interview~About the experience (En-yi Guo)

1. What first made you think of opening a restaurant? Why did you choose to offer traditional Truku cuisine?

A: Mr. Doyong wanted to open the restaurant, not I.

2. Did you have a lot of support when you first opened the restaurant? Who were your supporters? How did they provide you with support?

A: We had a lot of supporters when we first opened, and also some dissenters, but we supported each other. This summer luckily my sister came to help out because we are always busy in the summertime. Sometimes I also ask my tribespeople to come help me out.

3. What difficulties did you meet with at the very start? How you do market your business?

A:

(1) It cost us 10 million dollars and a lot of effort to build this restaurant, the hardest part was when we had no customers.

(2) We advertise online and through the media.

 4. Did you learn to make these dishes yourself or did anybody teach you? Did you find it difficult to learn?

A: Yes, because I am Minnan myself, I had never seen a lot of the aboriginal dishes, but Mr. Doyong insisted on serving them, so I had to learn how to make them. We can’t afford to rely on help, so I had to learn.

5. What kind of difficulties did you meet with when cooking? How did you solve your problems?

A:

(1) It was okay because our only seasoning is salt. Determining cooking time is a little more difficult.

(2) We try to overcome our problems as best as we can.  [UP]

◎Dageeli Aboriginal Restaurant Interview~About the cuisine (by Li-jie Yen)

1. What are the unique traits of Dageeli Aboriginal Restaurant? How did you manage to attract so many customers? What are your strategies and methods?

A:

(1) We insist on using Truku ingredients.

(2) We try our best, and provide internet service to customers in our restaurant to catch their attention.

(3) We try to cater to the preferences of our customers.

2. What is your most popular dish, and what makes it so special to customers? Why do they like your cuisine?

A:

(1) Traditional banana rice. (cooked in an innovative, refined method)

(2) It’s not available elsewhere and is very tasty.

3. Where do you get your ingredients from? How do you adjust your ingredient usage? According to customer preference or acceptance? How do you make your adjustments?

A:

(1) We use local produce and local ingredients.

(2) We adjust according to customers’ preference of flavor, but some dishes can’t be adjusted at will.

(3) We try to determine the acceptance of our customers, and we know a dish is popular when they finish down to the very last morsel.

(4) We adjust according to our observation of customers’ preference.

4. How did you come up with your menu? Can you tell us about your experience or the process?

A: Don’t imitate dishes made by other people, use local produce and be different.

5. What are your proudest creations? Why?

A:

(1) Banana rice, pigeon peas, pigs knuckles and grandma soup.

(2) We won prizes at food contests with these dishes.

Dageeli Aboriginal Restaurant Interview~About marketing (by Ting-hsuan Kao)

1. How do your customers learn about your aboriginal cuisine? What are your marketing methods? What resources do you use?

A: We do most of our advertising online. My son designed the website, and we hire professional management to periodically update our website content.

2. Aside from aboriginal cuisine, we also see other aboriginal tourist products, what are the ideas behind these products? We visited another aboriginal restaurant that offers tour guiding and bed & breakfast, do you plan to do the same? What are your plans?

A:

(1) The products we have on display include: oil paintings, rose stone, wood sculptures and stone sculptures, because placement of these decorations easily attracts customers.

(2) We do not plan to open a bed & breakfast. We used to, but the restaurant kept us so busy we were unable to handle both sides at once. So we gave up the bed & breakfast and concentrated on managing the restaurant well.

3. We know that managing a restaurant is no easy matter, do you try to use any resources or apply for project funding?

A:

(1) Yes, I applied for aboriginal employment subsidies so that our tribesmen may receive training and employment.

(2) I also applied for funding from the Water Resource Preservation Bureau and Council for Aboriginal Peoples, and received subsidies for tour guide and wall carving projects. The parking lot is available thanks to the Water Resource Preservation Bureau, and the patio is a product of subsidies from the Council for Aboriginal Peoples.

 4. What is your business theory? How do you treat your customers? How do you regulate your staff?

A:

(1) My business theory is: to fully demonstrate how our grandpas and grandmas used to cook Truku vegetables and ingredients, I myself can never forget what they taste like, therefore I wish to manage my Truku cuisine restaurant well, and let more people have a taste of our traditional food.

(2) Keep a smile on your face and make your customers feel welcome.

(3) Always provide the best service to your customers.

5. Have any of your dishes been criticized by customers? How did you deal with it? Have you encountered customers who were not used to or didn’t like your food? How did you resolve this problem?

A:

(1) Yes, when I first started making Truku cuisine, every piece of criticism helped me to improve.

(2) I tried to improve with each passing day.

(3) I would try to tell the story or background of the particular dish, and explain to my customers how the dish was made. For example, customers need to understand the origin and story of the dish “lover’s tears.”

6. What kind or what groups of customers come to have a taste of aboriginal cuisine? Do you have any regulars? Are there any customers whom you have vivid memories of?

A:

(1) We often have visitors from South-east Asia and other countries.

(2) We have some regulars that are brought be travel agencies.

(3) The customers I have deep impressions of include former vice-president Shiou-lien Lu, Hui-mei Chang, Tsung-hsien Wu, Hong-en Wang, and the teams from various gourmet food shows.

◎Dageeli Aboriginal Restaurant Interview~About the experience (by Yi-ting Chiang)

1. What inspired you to open a restaurant? Why did you choose to serve traditional cuisine? What are your goals after opening the restaurant?

A:

(1) I used to own a lot of space, and didn’t at first think of doing business except to fix the house up and turn it into a bed & breakfast. Then I considered that guests would need dining options, therefore I decided to open a restaurant. My husband (Teacher Guo) was against the idea because I didn’t know how to cook, but I insisted on trying and adhered to my belief that one must learn as long as one live. So I took the opportunity of a training session offered by the Council of Aboriginal Peoples and apprenticed myself at a restaurant.

(2) My goal is to manage my business well, and to improve and innovate. I don’t work in the kitchen anymore due to failing health, so I supervise the young people instead and teach them what I know. My current goal is to create new dishes!

2. Did you have a lot of support when you first opened the restaurant? We know that you family must have been your biggest supporters, how did they show their support?

A:

(1) At the beginning, you have to rely on yourself. As you gain fame, you will gradually gain recognition.

(2) The support of my family is what encouraged me to carry on and work hard. My daughter-in-law gives me her helping hand, and my husband is in charge of interior décor. The wood sculptures are his works of art.

3. Did you meet with any difficulties when you first started your business? How did you deal with the issues?

A:

(1) My biggest difficulty was that I didn’t know how to market my business. The first 5 years were the hardest ones, and we thought things would gradually improve, but then came the SARS epidemic, the financial crisis and devastating typhoons. These were all obstacles we had to conquer.

(2) We had to continue doing business even if there were no customers! You can’t give up just because nobody comes, you must persevere, because difficulties will pass, and life must go on.

 4. Did you learn all these dishes by yourself, or did anybody teach you? What difficulties did you encounter when you were learning to cook? How did you contend with the issues?

A:

(1) Ingredient wise, we had to ask for advice from knowledgeable people such as seniors in the business or the Ami people, because ultimately we had to harvest the ingredients ourselves. In terms of cooking, I learned from others, then tried to create my own unique dishes.

(2) I didn’t really find learning to cook difficult. As long as you learn and listen with your heart, keep on learning new things to maintain your business, you will naturally try to incorporate or think of new ways to improve the cuisine offered at your restaurant. It is always important to infuse your cuisine with local produce so that it stands out from everybody else.

5. You have now been in business for quite a while, do you still face any difficulties? How do you resolve them?

A:

(1) Different problems are always coming up, such as the natural disasters (typhoons) and lack of ingredients I just mentioned.

(2) We use vegetables planted by other people that are also naturally grown, and we maintain our own flavor because we use different cooking techniques. We also cultivate produce in greenhouses to ensure a steady supply, but in terms of seasonings, we like to adhere to traditional flavors.

 6. What are your plans for the future? Are there any dreams you would like to realize?

A: I would like to offer guided tours and cultural activities, including traditional song and dance, rice grinding, and in a nutshell, to “manage the restaurant well and keep customers happy.”[UP]

◎Hongye High-raised House Restaurant Interview~About the cuisine (by Guan-jie Wu)

1. What were the unique traits of your restaurant menu? In what ways were you different from other aboriginal restaurants, and why did that make you unique? If you offered similar service with other restaurants, how did you stand out from the competition?

A:

(1) We offered local traditional aboriginal cuisine.

(2) Our restaurant is named after the high-raised buildings on our premises.

(3) You must strive to serve your customers better.

2. What was the bestselling dish on your menu, what were customers most happy about? Why?

A:

(1) Roast chicken, with a sauce made of makauy and prickly ash. The two ingredients were grounded into a paste, rubbed onto the chickens then roasted, and that provided the chicken with a unique flavor.

(2) Makauy and prickly ash were popular with customers because they can’t be found elsewhere. Makauy is locally produced and harvested from the wild, and is not readily available even in local restaurants.

3. Were there any innovative dishes or flavors on your menu? What inspired you?

A:

(1) Tri-layered eggs that were flavored with prickly ash and makauy. Pumpkin cake that was made with pumpkins and sticky rice powder.

(2) We hoped to attract customers and more tourists by creating unique and flavorful dishes.

4. All of your dishes are made with local produce, such as Chinese scallion and makauy, can you tell us a little about why they have been used as cooking ingredients?

A: These ingredients are locally produced, so we hoped to help our local farmers by marketing local specialties, and also to encourage outsiders to learn about our tribal culture.

5. Did you learn to make all these dishes yourself, or did anybody teach you? What difficulties did you meet with when you were learning to cook? How did you resolve these issues?

A:

(1) We were mostly taught by our seniors from the Community Development Association. They used to hold cooking classes.

(2) I met with a lot of difficulties because I didn’t know how to cook at all, but finally learned to be proficient and learned a lot of dishes from my seniors.

6. What was your favorite dish? Why? What was most difficult to make? Why?

A:

(1) Wild meatball soup, because it was created using local ingredients, and was popular with the customers.

(2) Pot-roasted chicken, because it was hard to determine cooking time, and the chickens came out either burnt or undercooked.

◎Hongye High-raised House Restaurant Interview~About marketing (by Yi-hsuan Lin)

 1. What are the conditions that must be met when opening an aboriginal restaurant? What does one need to pay attention to?

A:

(1) Manpower, funds, land, and subsidies from the Council of Labor.

(2) You can try to apply for subsidies through relevant projects.

 2. What difficulties did you meet with when you first opened your restaurant? How did you conquer these obstacles? What were your strategies or methods?

A:

(1) The hardest parts were staff training, funding, and restrictions implemented by the Council of Labor.

(2) We looked for alternate ways to resolve issues.

3. In what ways do your customers learn about your restaurant? What are your marketing channels? How do you attract your customers?

A:

(1) We advertised our business online, by printing and handing out flyers, and business cards, and by being located near the hot springs area.

(2) Restaurants must offer unique cuisine in order to attract customers.

 4. What is your business theory?

A:

(1) To advocate traditional Truku cuisine.

(2) To offer employment to our tribespeople through manpower reuse.

(3) To increase land usage.

(4) To encourage tribesmen to stop drinking and start working.

 5. We feel it a great pity that restaurant is no longer in operation, what do you think were the major reasons?

A: Manpower and funding, we couldn’t employ people without money.

◎Hongye High-raised House Restaurant Interview~About the experience (By Yu-qin Ma)

 1. Have you ever visited and learned from other restaurants? Have you noticed any unique traits in other restaurants? Has anybody ever offered you any advice or suggestions?

A: We had to opportunity to visit restaurants in other places, such as the aboriginal restaurants in Yilan County Tatung Township and Beitou District. We discovered many unique traits and advantages that are worth taking into consideration, especially in their style of décor and menu design.

 2. What were the greatest difficulties you met with when you had to close down the restaurant? How did you deal with the situation?

A:

(1) Staff training.

(2) The restaurant had to close down, so we are storing the cooking and dining utensils at the Association right now.

3.What are your future plans for the restaurant?

A: If ever we receive funding again, we may be able to reopen the restaurant, because everything has been left as it was, and most of the cooking and dining utensils are still in shape. [UP]