―― A place name on every sign ――
In Taipei, and in Kaohsiung.
On signs for Taiwanese chicken rice, the same two characters appear again and again.
Chiayi.
In narrow alleys and station-front diners,
the place name repeats like a mark of origin.
Turkey rice without the word Chiayi
is treated as something borrowed.
Most days, I pass the characters without noticing.
Today, they stay in view.
Why turkey
The origin of turkey rice lies in Chiayi, a city in south-central Taiwan.
Its formal name is huoji roufan.
Huoji.
A turkey.
After the Second World War, Taiwan faced severe food shortages.
Chicken was expensive and limited in number.
Attention turned to turkeys.
They were large, efficient, and could feed many people from a single bird.
In Chiayi, the meat was torn into fine strands
and placed sparingly over rice.
There was no sense of luxury.
But it filled the stomach.
Between origin and substitution
As time passed, turkey rice spread across Taiwan.
Turkeys, however, were difficult to handle and costly.
In Taipei and the north,
more shops began using ordinary chicken instead.
Even so, in Chiayi, some places still insist on turkey.
The meat dries easily.
How to make it edible became a shared problem.
That long engagement with the question
rests quietly behind the dish.
Oil and rice
The bowl placed in front of me looks simple.
White rice, topped with pale strands of meat.
At first glance, it seems dry.
Chopsticks reveal otherwise.
At the bottom, a golden liquid waits.
Chicken fat.
Rendered from skin,
infused with the aroma of fried shallots.
When mixed,
oil and rice begin to bind.
The first bite carries a richness
that contradicts the plain appearance.
This is not a meat dish.
It is rice eaten with scented oil.
Subtraction, not addition
If braised pork rice is built by adding soy sauce and sugar,
turkey rice works through subtraction.
Salt and fat, reduced to the minimum.
The flavor stays quiet.
It does not insist.
Still, once finished,
it remains in memory.
A dish born from postwar scarcity
has survived into an age of abundance for this reason.
The word Chiayi is not only a place name.
It guarantees a period of time
that treated simplicity as a virtue.
Read more records of food and streets.
