Lacking resources
Like the master chef in a top restaurant, a bandoh chef is responsible for the entire meal: from purchasing ingredients, designing the menu, and cooking the food, all the way to controlling the timing of the banquet. Geographical and environmental factors have tended to contribute to the reputation of the Neimen District as the home of Taiwan’s bandoh chefs.
Compared to neighboring districts such as Meinong, which has flat and fertile land suitable for rice, and Qishan, known for its banana exports to Japan, Neimen lacks such resources. The area is not suited to farming because of its highly alkaline chalky soil. And when the rains come, the soil is often washed away leaving only muddy rocks. So the locals have traditionally harvested bamboo to make baskets and containers and sold their products to the banana farmers in Qishan.
From the 1960s, however, Qishan’s farmers replaced their bamboo baskets with cheaper packing materials like cardboard and plastic, so Neimen’s economy was hit hard. But at the same time, the bandoh business was growing, and it soon became a major career path for local residents.
Other initiatives helped. Neimen tried to develop pig farming, but it didn’t last due to the impacts of foot-and-mouth disease in 1997 and new government animal husbandry policies. Then they tried growing fruit including longan and guava, and about a decade ago, began cultivating anthurium flowers, which now account for 40% of the Taiwan market, providing some support for the local economy.
Over the past forty years, as people in Neimen tried out different ways of making a living, the bandoh business took deep root, and became a way of life for many locals.
Speaking of history, chef Xue Qingji, who can boast four decades of experience in the bandoh business, says that in the early years bandoh didn’t have the same division of labor that it has today. Chefs weren’t really qualified, but were often the host’s relatives and friends who happened to be good at cooking. They would come to help, cooking simple dishes like fried rice noodles.
Xiao Shuichi was a farmer through the 1950s, but because he was well known in the community as a good cook, he became the first bandoh chef in Neimen. At that time, chefs only needed to bring a few kitchen knives, a long-handled ladle, and a spatula to the banquet venue. The host of the banquet was responsible for providing the ingredients, along with the dining tables and chairs. In such a traditional rural community, poor in material terms, a family bandoh event often involved the participation of the entire community.
Xue Minghui (second from right), a second-generation chef, inherited his cooking skills from his father Xue Qingji, who has 40 years of bandoh experience. The younger Xue maintains local bandoh culture despite its gradual decline.