What You Can Expect on Terra Madre 2026 from Taitung, Taiwan
Photo慢食臺東
Article慢食臺東
Date：2026.09.10
From September 24 to 27, the Taitung Pavilion turns a corner of Turin into a working cross-section of Taiwan's east coast: tribal kitchens, a century-old marlin harbor, mountain foraging grounds, and rice paddies that were, until recently, left fallow. The programming is organized around six themes — Sustainable Farming, Food and Agricultural Education, Sustainable Ocean, Indigenous Wisdom, Wild Foraging, and Slow Food Restaurant. Rather than a static exhibit, the pavilion runs on a live daily schedule of sampling, sensory experiences, and producer-led conversation.
Every day: taste first
Each morning opens with Bites of Taitung Flavors, a walk-through tasting of what the region sends across the world for this trip — white marlin floss, Taitung sea salt, prickly ash seeds, shell ginger candy, wild tomato sauce, black nightshade jam, oil-preserved tomatoes, a sparkling pineapple-seaweed drink, and wild-spice focaccia among them. It runs longer on opening day (10:00–11:30) and settles into an hour-long slot (10:00–11:00) for the rest of the week. From there, visitors can move into the Taiwan Native Wild Tea Tasting and Aroma Sensory experience (roughly 11:20–12:00 daily, capped at 8 participants, €40/pax). This is built around Shanyun, Taiwan's native wild tea species (Camellia formosensis) found in the tribal forests of Luye, Taitung — one of the oldest surviving wild relatives in the tea family. Alongside the tasting, guests smell essential oils pressed from tea grown in three different environments — wild forest, seed-preservation plots, and commercial gardens — to sense, quite literally, how terroir shapes a plant. It's billed as the world premiere of this tasting-and-scent format, and each session includes a limited-release Taiwan Native Wild Tea fragrance spray. Lunch is Taitung-style riceballs, hand-shaped on site by tribal partners with rice and fillings that change daily — a chance to taste, in one bite, the everyday cooking logic of Taitung's indigenous communities.
Evening workshops and talks, day by day
Thursday, September 24 closes with a hands-on Amis Rice Wine Brewing and Tasting Workshop (17:00–18:30, 8 participants, €40/pax), led by mi'epah. Guests knead glutinous rice with a century-old yeast starter, sample several of founder Kelly's home brews, and take home their own jar of rice wine along with a handmade ceramic piece. Friday, September 25 turns to the classroom, with a talk from Palitao Studio and Bar Osmanthus on food and agricultural education. Palitao has spent years turning wild and roadside ingredients — tomato, shell ginger, guava — into small-batch preserves through slow, hand methods; Bar Osmanthus brings the same unhurried, home-style approach to its kitchen. Together they discuss what it means to teach food outside an industrial, standardized model. The evening continues with Bunun Bean Sorting and Bean Soup Tasting (17:00–18:30 & 18:30-20:00, 8 participants/session, €10/pax), hosted by Kaiana Workshop — the group behind Taitung's Bunun millet revival and also the birthplace of the Pasibutbut eight-part harmony. Guests sort and taste pigeon pea, adlay, and amaranth, the "Bunun beans" historically grown on marginal mountain land alongside millet, then try a traditional bean soup. Saturday, September 26 brings the Above and Below the Sea Talk, pairing Chenggong Culture Bank with Meet Marlin. Chenggong Culture Bank built its restaurant identity by learning intertidal foraging — seaweed, shellfish — directly from local Amis sea women; Meet Marlin champions low-impact fishing methods like hand-harpooning, longlining, and single hook-and-line. Together they lay out two sides of the same coastline. The evening doubles up on the rice wine workshop, running two sessions (17:00 and 18:30, 8 participants each, €40/pax). Sunday, September 27 closes the program with the Grain to Brew Talk, bringing mi 'epah and Kaiana Workshop together on stage. mi'epah traces Amis rice wine making back to household technique — yeast starter, water ratio, fermentation temperature, no added sugar, nothing standardized. Kaiana Workshop, meanwhile, has spent over a decade reviving millet as a living crop, since nearly all Bunun ritual and calendar life is organized around its growing cycle — including a version once fermented into wine for ceremony and hospitality. A final round of Bites of Taitung Flavors runs from 17:00 to 20:00 to send the week off.
Why it matters
None of this is staged for effect. The producers on this year's trip are the same people foraging tidal pools at dawn, hand-harpooning marlin off Chenggong Harbor, and replanting beans their grandmothers once kept in their pockets. What Taitung is bringing to Turin isn't a themed menu — it's a working record of how one region on Taiwan's east coast is keeping its food traditions, and the biodiversity behind them, alive. Seats for the tea tasting, rice wine workshops, and bean-sorting session are limited to 8 participants per slot, so early sign-up is recommended for anyone hoping to get a spot.
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