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Every Single Town in Taiwan Simultaneously Proclaims Itself 'Seafood Capital of Taiwan' ~ TC Lin
SANXIA | Along with every other city on the island, this small mountain town made a formal announcement yesterday that from now on it will be known as 'The Seafood Capital of Taiwan'.
Coastal cities as well as all of the larger cities on the island have been making the same claim since the late 1600's, but now other cities are anxious for the prestige that accompanies towns with such an illustrious title.
"People hear that this is the Seafood Capital of Taiwan, and they go crazy," Lin Zhao-zhou, Director of Seafood Publicity in Sanxia, told reporters. "It's not even limited to seafood, although our seafood is excellent. But the same people who come for our cuisine will also love our oddly-shaped rocks and our wide variety of butterflies."
"We also have a nice bridge," Lin added. "And you want temples? We've got temples!"
Several mountain towns were criticized by local aborigines for making similar declarations.
"We're famous for deer!" exclaimed Wu Rong-zheng, 34, of the Taiyal tribe, about his native village, which joined in the mass seafood-capital proclamation yesterday. "And black bears before they became practically extinct. The only seafood I see is the shells embedded in the cliffsides!"
Local restauranteers, however, tell a different story. "Sure, we have plenty of fresh seafood," said one man by the name of Chen who operates a cement fishing pond. "You can even catch it yourself for a small fee. How could we not be the seafood capital of Taiwan? This is no joke."
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