Mudan Township in Pingtung County is the southernmost hillside township in Taiwan. The peaceful little mountain village is where the Japanese invasion of Taiwan incident happened…
Introduction
Mudan Township in Pingtung County is the southernmost hillside township in Taiwan. The peaceful little mountain village is where the Japanese invasion of Taiwan incident happened in the famous Taiwanese serial “Seqalu”. The scenic route “Alang Yi Ancient Road” is surrounded by primitive nature. Ding Cailun was deeply fascinated by the primitive wilderness, and left her high-paying job to come to Pingtung. She soon gained a reputation for planting fresh, sweet and delicious Nostoc mushrooms.
Nicknamed Ding Ding, the slender-figured Ding Cai Lun used to be an air stewardess. As she used to frequent Kenting and loved the seafood, she came to realize that Nostoc are not actually mushrooms, but a type of algae. Her interest led her to try planting it herself, and the air stewardess became a village girl. She was not afraid of any laborious work, even as her fair skin became “dark as the unseeming Nostoc”, as she would tease.
The Nostoc are known as ‘lover’s tears’ by the aborigines, and are a type of wild blue-green algae, with the 12 times the calcium content of milk and is highly nutritious. Ding Ding insists on obtaining organic and eco-friendly certification for her produce, so not only is the planting process all natural, even the harvesting, cleaning, drying, and selection are all done via elevated railings, to prevent secondary pollution and ensure that consumers eat only the most nutritious nostocs.
Features of Agricultural Tourism
Vegetable
The farm has also developed many creative ways to eat nostocs, such as adding grounded pork as filling to make meat balls, or made into jelly and bubble pearl to be treated as a summer dessert. It can also be grinded into powder to make JiuCi algae noodles, the 13 Fragrance spice, etc. Creative usage has redefined the value of nostoc mushrooms.
In the cooking classroom of agricultural tourism experience, Ding Ding has also cooperated with chefs of Chinese and Western cuisines to make creative cuisines. She found that nostocs were suited for making pizza, cooking stewed rice, making shrimp cakes, and even serving as an important ingredient in molecular gastronomy. Ding Ding states that the addition of mushrooms to the Marseille fish soup in French cuisine enhances the flavor even more. She also hopes that when tourists come to Pingtung to take the Seqalu route in the future, they will not forget to make an appointment to visit the farm, eat some nostoc dishes, and feel the charm of the “lover’s tears”.
