Southern Taiwan Good Market: Warm European cuisine made with local good ingredients

The warm sunlight of Kaohsiung falls on the "Le Bon Marche" restaurant, a renovated old house. Push open the glass door, and the first thing you see on the dining table are house-made jams by the restaurant staff and books about foreign ingredients. After head chef Huang Ying opened the shop in Hamasen last year, a chance encounter led her to discover Kaohsiung's Breeze Market, and she began using local ingredients to make French-style brunch and Continental cuisine. The restaurant lives up to its name, as if it were a market where one exchanges with small farmers and customers, feeling the flow of emotion between people.

In addition to using local, seasonal ingredients in Continental cuisine, the "Le Bon Marche" restaurant handles as much as possible in-house, as long as it can start from the raw materials. For example, it makes pineapple, apple and cinnamon jam from fresh fruit, experimented many times to develop a low-temperature fermented, velvety yogurt, and uses spices and garlic to make its own Italian focaccia bread.

Although some ingredients are limited by the geographical environment and climate - for example, asparagus still has to be imported, and the restaurant currently cannot achieve 100% use of organic vegetables or local ingredients - Huang Ying says: "I wouldn't dare say how well I'm doing, but at least within the range of my ability and the selling price, I do what I believe in. I use local ingredients whenever I can."

 

Nearly a year after opening, Huang Ying hopes that the "Le Bon Marche" restaurant can live up to its name and closely connect chefs, farmers and consumers. "Just like the uncles and aunties at the vegetable market, they will tell you what is best to eat at this time of year. And we ourselves are cooks, sharing our cooking experience, so that after customers come to the restaurant and dine, they can go home and start trying to do some things, and share together what foods are best to eat in season."

Restaurant information: Le Bon Marche
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marche2014?fref=ts
Phone: 07-5326899
Address: No. 19, Gushan 1st Road, Gushan District, Kaohsiung City, MRT Sizihwan Station Exit 2
Opening hours:
Brunch 9:00~17:00, dinner 18:30~22:30, closed every Tuesday

(This article received project funding for personnel expenses from the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation, but the foundation does not interfere at all with news topics or interview writing, ensuring news independence.)