Taiwan Outlying Islands Food & Traditional Cuisine

The islands eat what the sea and the wind allow, and each group has developed a cuisine around a specific constraint.

Penghu lives on seafood — the strait is rich, and the islands are known for squid, mullet roe, oysters and small lobster. Farming is hard in the wind and salt, so the crops that succeed are the tough ones: pumpkin, sweet potato, peanuts and the prickly pear cactus that grows wild and is turned into a startling magenta ice cream.

Kinmen’s food is Fujianese, and its specialities come from its history: sorghum, planted when the military encouraged a crop that would grow on poor ground and could be distilled, and beef from cattle fed on the distillery mash.

Matsu cooks Fuzhou-style — red yeast rice lees used as a marinade and a stew base, giving dishes a deep pink colour and a distinctive fermented sweetness.

Orchid Island eats flying fish, taro and sweet potato, within a ritual system that governs who may eat what.

Kinmen sorghum liquor — kaoliang — is the islands’ most famous product and is dealt with in the drinks section, but it also flavours the food: sorghum-marinated beef jerky is the standard Kinmen gift.

Kinmen beef noodle soup, made with cattle raised on distillery residue, is the island’s signature dish and quite different from the Taipei version.

Oyster omelette and oyster noodles on Kinmen, where the oyster beds are worked with stone poles planted in the tidal flats.

Penghu cactus ice — bright pink sorbet made from prickly pear fruit — and pumpkin noodles are the island’s own, alongside dried mullet roe, wuyuzi, sliced and lightly grilled.

Matsu’s red yeast dishes: hongzao chicken and pork stewed in fermented red rice lees, and jiguang bing, a sesame-topped flatbread with a hole in the middle, once strung on a soldier’s belt.

Flying fish on Orchid Island, dried on racks and eaten in season.

Magong’s morning market on Penghu is the best place to understand what the islands produce — squid and small reef fish landed overnight, mullet roe hung in sheets, pumpkin and peanuts.

Seafood restaurants on Penghu sell by weight from tanks and ice; agree the price before choosing, and the small local species are better value and better eating than the expensive lobster.

Kinmen’s Mofan Street and the village shops sell the island’s specialities — jerky, sorghum liquor, and the knives — and the courtyard-house guesthouses generally serve a Fujianese breakfast of congee and small dishes.

On Orchid Island, eating is governed by Tao custom: certain fish are designated for men, for women or for elders, and this is taken seriously rather than being folklore. Guesthouses will explain; follow their lead.

Seasonality is absolute here. Mullet roe in winter, flying fish in spring, cactus fruit in summer — there is no point asking for the wrong one.

The outlying islands produce Taiwan’s most famous alcoholic drink, and it is not wine.

Kinmen Kaoliang is a sorghum spirit distilled on Kinmen since 1952, typically bottled at 58 per cent, clear, fierce and with a distinctive grainy sweetness. It began as a military-era scheme: sorghum grew on the island’s poor soil, the army encouraged planting it, and the distillery was set up to use the crop. It became the standard toast at Taiwanese banquets and weddings, the distillery is one of the island’s largest employers and funds much of the local budget, and aged bottles are collected and traded. The plant is open to visitors.

Matsu Tunnel 88 distils its own kaoliang and ages it inside a former military tunnel, which keeps a constant temperature.

Matsu’s red yeast rice wine — the Fuzhou tradition — is brewed locally, and the lees left over are what flavours the island’s cooking.

Grape wine is not made on any of these islands.