Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) Three award-winning chefs from the United States and Canada on Monday concluded their eight-day gourmet adventure in Taiwan, where they had been sampling local cuisine at the invitation of the Tourism Bureau to get recipe ideas and bring home a taste of Taiwan.

Bryant Wigger from Los Angeles, Michael Ferraro from New York, and Thomas Heinrich from Vancouver said they were impressed by the diversity of Taiwanese food and plan to create dishes that incorporate local concepts.

The dishes they have in mind -- pork balls and silver needle noodles in soup, seafood with sausage, and silky fowl wraps, respectively -- will be on the menu in their restaurants starting in January.

Wigger said his choice was inspired after experiencing the food of the Hakka people in a village, where he discovered the unique traditional dish of silver needle noodles, called bi-dai-bak in Taiwanese. The thick noodles are made of rice milk and sweet potato starch.

During their time in Taiwan, the chefs also covered typical must-eats at local night markets, where all three were impressed by the food and hospitality of Taiwanese people, they said.

Their experiences in Taiwan have been documented and will be broadcast in January in the United States and Canada to give TV viewers in those countries an introduction to Taiwanese food, according to Tourism Bureau chief Cheng Chih-hung.

"We hope this campaign will help build up interest in Taiwanese food," Cheng said, adding that the bureau is working with travel agents to develop related itineraries for tourists from North America.

(By Lee Hsin-Yin)
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