It looks like change is on the way for Taipei’s annual beef noodle festival. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said Sunday that the festival is not going to be cancelled, per se. He did say, though, that the city government needs to rethink the festival, rather than continuing to hold it in the same way it’s been held for the past ten years.
Beef noodles – “niu rou mian” in Chinese – is considered one of Taipei city’s signature dishes. Although the dish originated in China, it has taken on new flavors and popularity since chefs brought it here with an influx of Mainland Chinese in the late 1940s. For the past decade, the Taipei City Government has held a festival honoring the soup-based dish, offering among other things: samples, discounted prices, cooking demonstrations and competitions.
The head of Taipei’s Department of Economic Development, Lin Chung-chieh, said Saturday night that beef noodles were already such a fixture in people’s lives that there was no need to hold a festival to promote them.
Mayor Ko said he hoped that annual events like the beef noodle festival could take on a new meaning under his administration. But he said he would leave it up to the Department of Economic Development to come up with ideas for marketing the city’s industries.