Black Bean Garden Live Fish Cuisine Restaurant Introduction
The Journey of a Gold Medal Chef Originally a chef skilled in cooking, Huang Qiutian, born in 1969, transitioned to an inexperienced farmer. At the age of 15, he moved north to learn culinary arts. After mastering his craft, he worked as a chef in Liuqiao Street and later opened an affordable Japanese restaurant in Yuanlin, hiring 20 chefs and generating monthly revenues of 2 million NTD. Five years ago, after his father, who had been growing water bamboo for years, injured his ankle, he was asked to return home. To care for his father, he and his wife brought their children back to their hometown and learned to farm. He admits that he truly didn't know what he was doing at first. To promote faster growth for the bamboo shoots, he applied a large amount of fertilizer at the roots. Unexpectedly, this led to "foolish growth"; whenever it rained, the shoots floated to the surface, becoming aerial water bamboo. The harvested shoots were short and fat, with a texture that was overcooked, earning the name "radish legs." Unsurprisingly, the price was not favorable. While others sold a pound for over 40 NTD, Huang Qiutian could manage only 25 NTD, making it the lowest price in the market. For a time, whenever he entered the market, other bamboo farmers would mock him, saying, "Here comes the 25-dollar guy!" This hurt him deeply, and on one occasion, he ran to the back mountain and cried. From that moment on, he realized the importance of using fertilizer in moderation. In addition to fertilizer, he also insisted on not using pesticides, which frustrated his father, who scolded him, "You foolish child, you won't get anything grown this way." Indeed, rust disease and sesame leaf blight, which could have been handled with pesticides in the past, struck his fields, forcing him to rely on manual removal. While older farmers would stand in the water to pull weeds, Huang Qiutian ingeniously used a piece of Styrofoam covered with a cloth bag as a makeshift seat in the water, allowing him to move and weed much more easily. Other farmers initially found this amusing but soon recognized its effectiveness and asked him to help create similar devices. "I'm not smarter; I just like to be lazy," he humbly admitted. He joked that at night, he had “a leg” with the water bamboo. Afraid that apple snails and birds would eat the bamboo shoots in the middle of the night, he would regularly patrol his rice paddies with a bamboo cannon to scare away the birds. The pesticide-free bamboo shoots, freshly cut from the rice fields, needed only to be peeled and rinsed in the cool, clear mountain spring water at the edge of the field before they were ready to eat. After three years of returning home, he obtained certification for his farm, and the selling price of his bamboo shoots exceeded that of standard ones. While others could harvest twice a year, he managed three times, totaling two tons annually, and his harvest would often sell out immediately. Three months after returning home, Huang Qiutian opened the "Heitao Garden" restaurant, where he expertly prepares bamboo shoots using Taiwanese and Japanese culinary techniques, preserving their fresh sweetness and delightful crispness. Another innovative dish he created is the "Tea Towel Beauty," which uses tofu skin to wrap local ingredients. Despite being a deep-fried dish, it pairs with passion fruit jam from Puli, resulting in a refreshing sweet and sour flavor! He has won numerous awards, including the Gold Medal for Beautiful Leg Dishes across the Taiwan Strait and the championship at the Puli Water Bamboo Creative Food Contest. The "Gold Medal Chef" plaque hanging on his wall is a testament to his achievements. Huang Qiutian is also one of the farmers in Puli who allows tourists to experience planting and harvesting water bamboo. "When city kids mistake the rosy eggs of apple snails for strawberries, I realize I've done something right!" he said. In the second year after returning home, he opened his farm for experiential activities to revitalize the rural community. Huang Qiutian tells young people that the future advantage of Taiwan lies in agriculture, not high-tech industries!
