Black Bean Garden Fresh Fish Restaurant Introduction
The journey of a gold medal chef transitioning from a chef to an inexperienced farmer is embodied by "Huang Qiutian," who was born in 1969 and originally specialized in cooking. At the age of 15, he headed north to apprentice and, upon completing his training, worked as a chef in Liuchiao Street. Later, he opened a budget Japanese restaurant in Yuanlin, employing 20 chefs and generating a monthly income of 2 million TWD. Five years ago, his father, who had been growing bamboo shoots for many years, asked him to return home due to an ankle injury. To take care of his father, Huang and his wife returned to their hometown with their child and learned to farm. He admits he had no idea what to do at first. In an attempt to make the bamboo shoots grow faster, he dumped a large amount of fertilizer at the roots, but this backfired. Whenever it rained, the bamboo shoots floated to the surface, becoming what he called "sky water shoots," which turned out short and overly fatty, resulting in poor texture and flavor, likening them to "radish legs." Unsurprisingly, the price was low. While others sold at over 40 TWD per pound, Huang Qiutian’s could only fetch 25 TWD, the lowest price in the market. For a while, whenever he stepped into the market, other farmers mocked him, saying, "Here comes the 25 TWD guy!" This deeply saddened him, and he once cried in the hills. That was when he learned the importance of using the right amount of fertilizer. Additionally, he insisted on not using pesticides, which displeased his father, who scolded him, saying, "You silly child, you won't be able to harvest anything this way." Indeed, the rust disease and sesame leaf wilt, which could usually be solved with pesticides, invaded his fields, forcing him to remove them by hand. While older generations used to stand in the water to pull weeds, Huang Qiutian innovatively used a piece of Styrofoam wrapped in a cloth bag as a floating chair, allowing him to sit and use his feet to maneuver around in the water, greatly reducing effort. At first, other farmers found it amusing, but after trying it, they found it effective and requested his help in making more. "I’m not smarter, just lazier," he shyly admitted. He jokingly said that at night he was "in a relationship with the bamboo shoots," as he was afraid of snails and birds stealing the shoots, frequently patrolling the rice fields with a bamboo cannon to scare the birds away. Thus, the naturally grown bamboo shoots harvested from the rice paddies only needed to be peeled of their green skin and washed briefly in the cool mountain spring water from the nearby ditch to be ready to eat. Three years after returning home, he obtained certification from Jiyuanpu, selling his bamboo shoots at a higher price than regular ones. While others could harvest twice a year, he managed three times, yielding 2 tons annually that would sell out immediately. After returning home for three months, he opened the "Heidou Garden" restaurant, where the most impressive dish featured bamboo shoots cooked in a Taiwanese-Japanese style, retaining their sweetness and serving as a delicious and refreshing treat. Another innovative dish he developed was "Tea Towel Beauty," which wrapped local ingredients in tofu skin. Although it was a deep-fried dish, it paired perfectly with passion fruit jam from Puli, providing a refreshing sweet and sour taste! He has won numerous awards, including the Golden Medal Award for the Beautiful Legs Cuisine across the Strait and the champion of the Puli Bamboo Shoot Creative Food Competition, with the "Gold Medal Chef" plaque hanging on the wall as proof. Huang Qiutian is also one of the farmers in Puli who allows visitors to experience planting and harvesting bamboo shoots. "When city kids mistake the pink eggs of rice snails for strawberries, I realize I’ve done something right!" he said, explaining that in his second year back home, he opened his farm for experiential learning to revitalize the rural area. Huang Qiutian advises young people that Taiwan's future advantage lies in agriculture, not in high technology!
