阿里山農產 Alishan

I love trying the local produce of an area. If you know Chinese or have a good eye for recognition, you will see the characters for 阿里山 Alishan on each of these agricultural products arranged on our elegant 99 cent table cloth. (well not the Thailand white guavas, they are from our backyard. They were ripe in January, right on schedule.) 阿里山is a mountainous area in the south central part of Taiwan.


At the warmer, but not tropical areas, they are starting to grow coffee. That is what is the packet with the train, the old railroad built 1906-12. It is really good tasting, but still quite expensive due to limited quantity. Most people think of tea when they think of East Asian countries, but coffee is also quite popular in most places.

The really famous growing areas on 阿里山 are dedicated to tea. That is the round container with the sunrise photo. I'll save talking about tea for another post but we had a really special experience on a tea plantation in that area. We were taken to a well-known tea plantation by the son of the bed and breakfast place we stayed. The owner had an amazing knowledge of agriculture in that area and had been visited the week before by a famous French director whose son lived in Taiwan. Our daughter enjoyed a motor scooter ride generously provided by the owner's wife.

Farthest up the mountain is the cherry honey in the top photo and the wasabi in the bottom photo. The wasabi was original planted by the Japanese earlier in the last century who found the cold climate of the high mountains perfect for planting the giant root. It is hot and goes really well with raw fish.