Taiwan’s foreign meat manufacturers are satisfying people’s desire for “healing” cuisine by expanding the variety and quality of their products, and adding diversity to local tastes.
There is one Taiwanese snack that often loses the hearts of diners very quickly, and that is sausage. Many foreigners who have lived in Taiwan are often first attracted to the juicy, chewy, and often stringy texture of sausages, as well as their sweet, rice wine-filled flavor, but due to the snack’s lack of variety, people’s love has gradually faded. gradually decreases as time passes.
Different sausage manufacturers use slightly different seasonings, spices and ingredients. Smaller traditional vendors use raw garlic as a condiment and also offer the option of “large intestine wrapped in small intestine”. Some eccentric vendors put daring twists on the standard recipe, such as sprinkling in some black pepper. Some cured meat products use pork liver or duck liver, which is reminiscent of Hong Kong-style sausage.
But no matter what changes are made, the sausages you find in Taiwan tend to be traditionally limited to one type, thus disappointing many people from countries accustomed to a wide variety of pork products.
So it’s not hard to imagine foreign entrepreneurs targeting this gap in the market and filling it with plenty of delicious, well-seasoned sausage skewers. In fact, sausage purveyors have sprouted up everywhere in the past two decades. What follows is not an exhaustive list, but a recommended selection of top-notch Western-style meat products from across Taiwan.
Mr. Sausage’s Kitchen
facebook.com/Mr.Sausageskitchen
Mark Goding and his wife Zhang Jiaying from Australia have run a restaurant and pub near the Taipei Arena for fifteen years. They provide customers with sausages and sauerkraut as side dishes. At that time, you would also see Gaumark riding his bicycle on the streets of Taipei to provide delivery services.
Eventually, the restaurant’s operations ran into problems in handling customers. “You have to be a little bit of a masochist to deal with customers in a restaurant environment,” Gomack said. He jokingly described customers as “seeing the worst versions of themselves in the mirror,” which prompted him and his wife to decide to switch gears.
Mr. Sausage’s Kitchen continues to supply hotel and restaurant sausage products, but the couple are now “more picky” about their customers. “A lot of it is handmade, and we also have a list of old friends to whom we will continue to provide products,” he said.
Gaumark and his wife used to make sausages by hand in the early days. Later, they used imported Spanish equipment and converted to a machine-based production line for many years. But when their restaurant closed and moved to a smaller space, they switched back to traditional preparations. “Now it’s just me, a meat grinder, a table, and a very big refrigerator,” he said.
Looking back, Gaumark says a big motivation for starting his sausage business was winning over a group of ravenous South African diners. “My motivation was that a 35-year-old Australian guy who had never played rugby wanted to join a rugby team,” he said. “So I started making sausages so they would pass the ball to me!”
Gaumark also sponsors a football team whose uniforms bear his company name. A man who never stops using witty sausage-themed jokes, Goldmark added the slogan “Ask me about my sausage” on the back of each jersey below the player’s name and number. “When we played football at Taipei American School, they asked us to tuck that part of our jerseys into our shorts to make sure no one would see it,” he said.
As for whether Western-style sausages are favored by local gourmets in Taiwan, Gaumark is not so sure. “When we first started, there were a handful of adventurous people who were willing to try new things,” he said. “Now, you usually get people who just want to take pictures with the product.”
One thing that hasn’t changed since Gomack started his business is that he still offers delivery by bicycle if the customer is within close enough range. “It’s a health bonus,” he said.
Churchill’s premium sausages (Churchill’s)
churchillssausages.com
As one of the few companies selling European-style sausages in large quantities through major commercial channels, Churchill Premium Sausages is a pioneer in the market. Co-founder and CEO Dom Grant says his sausage-related epiphany happened while walking his dog—presumably not a reference to the Taiwanese restaurants to which he unceremoniously compares his product. The company markets its processed meat sausage products as German sausages.
“I think the market is gradually recognizing the authenticity of our products, because more and more customers are beginning to pay attention to the differences in products,” Guo Dongmin said. “Of course, our products will attract foreigners, but our main customers are Taiwanese. Especially those who have experience of traveling or living overseas, or those who like delicious food.”
During the aforementioned dog walk, Guo Dongmin and fellow Brit Lee Thomas discussed their mutual desire for British-style sausages, and he decided to challenge himself to create something special at home. When he later took his homemade product to a beer party with Tang Anli, he found that Tang Anli had done the same thing inadvertently. “We didn’t tell each other before,” Guo Dongmin said. “We laughed and tasted delicious sausages. It all started from here.”
In the early days, the duo made everything in Tang’s kitchen and “haunted Western bars and hawked them on Friday nights.” Guo Dongmin, who has a background in technology and finance, sensed the business potential and decided to outsource to contract manufacturers to meet the growing demand from the different sales channels he had established.
“This allows us to have quality control and output, as well as necessary industrial and legal standards, such as the food safety control system (HACCP),” Guo Dongmin said. “This is not simple. We have taken risks in terms of output. Moreover, at the beginning we have to It took a lot of time to make sure the factory could replicate the flavor and texture.”
In 2015, Churchill’s Premium Sausage launched its own brand in Jason’s (now Mia C’bon) and City Super supermarket chains, two supermarket chains known for their Western imports. Three years later, Carrefour Taiwan approached Guo Dongmin and invited them to open a Carrefour store in Tianmu, Taipei. Guo Dongmin and Tang Anli agreed without hesitation. Since then, they have launched the iconic British red telephone box freezer in branches islandwide. Consumers can now purchase their meat burritos, mince pies, chicken Kiev, microwave-ready meals, six sausage items and other products.
Sausage Shack
monsterpizza.com.tw
There are quite a few businesses in Taichung that offer high-quality sausages and cured meats, but Sausage Hsieh stands out from the rest. This is not surprising, given the background of founder Adrian Buirski.
By the age of eleven, Buirski was already an apprentice butcher in his hometown of Cape Town, South Africa. “My brother who ran the slaughterhouse taught me the skills I needed to become a ‘blockman’ (the person responsible for cutting, seasoning and preparing meat) before I was sixteen,” he said. He came to Taiwan in 2001, and a few years later he began using these abilities to meet the demand among his fellow countrymen for high-quality farm-style boerewors.
From that stage, the demographic structure began to undergo some changes. “Taiwanese people are definitely becoming more willing to savor Western-style sausages,” he said. “I know this from going out to events and serving people sausages the way we do in South Africa.”
Although Buirski recently sold his manufacturing and retail operations to Monster Foods, a Changhua food manufacturer with which he has a close relationship, he continues to host physical events across Taiwan.
Sausage’s products include bacon, lamb and chakalaka, a spicy South African dish. However, the tried and trusted classics still sell best. “The most popular ones are definitely the South African beef sausages, followed by the traditional British pork sausages,” Buirski said.
Cory’s Kitchen
coryskitchentw.com
Cory, a Canadian living in Kaohsiung, had experience making sausages when he was young, and even developed an emotional connection with his meat dishes. “My family and I would make venison sausage during hunting season,” he recalls of his childhood in Saskatchewan.
Like most of the businesses mentioned in this article, Curry’s Kitchen started as a hobby between friends. “We made sausage for our own cravings and then joked about turning it into a real business to satisfy people who, like us, crave the authentic taste of home,” Corey said. As word spread, the joke turned serious.
As with all food businesses, meeting health and safety standards is a top priority. The first step is to send the sample to SGS, a health and safety inspection agency in Switzerland. “We also take food safety control system (HACCP) courses and pass tests to ensure we are up to date with the latest government regulations and related matters.”
Since its establishment in 2011, the company has expanded from a store in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung to an online store. Their products can also be seen on the shelves of supermarkets, such as the beautiful market located in Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Hall A4 in Taipei. Many bars, restaurants and hotels in Taiwan also use their products.
The Braai Guy
thebraaiguy.com/store
Few people in other countries can host a meat feast comparable to “saffa braai” – a word that should be translated as barbecue, but it means much more to South Africans. “It’s part of our culture and it’s something we do every week,” says Derik Du Plessis, also known as Mr. Barbecue. “When people leave South Africa, the thing they miss most is the authentic braai and the meat on the grill. South African Sausage.”
From its base in Hualien, Du Plessis offers a range of delicious meat products to suit people’s needs, including the best quality biltong (air-dried, cured meat) you’ll find in Taiwan. Among his many sausage products, Du Plessis pointed out that Moroccan lamb and cheese fried sausage are very popular with local customers. However, he mentioned that while people adjust their tastes, old habits are very hard to change.
“Taiwanese people have very different tastes for sausages,” he said. “They have been eating sweet sausages since they were young, and many people just prefer the taste they are used to.”
Although he used to bring his braai to pop-up events across Taiwan, Du Plessis has lessened the frequency of his participation in recent years. “It’s not easy to get anywhere from Hualien,” he said. “Now I only attend two Saffafests in Hsinchu and Kaohsiung.” The South African food and culture festivals held in March and November respectively made Du Plessis has the opportunity to provide his fellow South Africans with the taste of home they miss. “My target customer base is still South Africans,” he said, “so most of my products have a South African flavor.”
Little Europe
littleeurope.tw/cat/sausages-and-more
Little Europe is a recent addition to the sausage list. Co-founder Eckart Schenk was trained as a civil engineer and then worked as a freelance consultant and coordinator on energy and construction projects in Germany and Taiwan. However, his growing e-commerce side business led him to explore new possibilities.
“In 2021, we started selling German sausages at the German Products An online store.”
Partnering with a well-known German butcher in southern Taiwan, Little Europe offers a variety of German sausages, freshly fermented sauerkraut, and German pork knuckles. Unlike some Western food businesses, most of Little Europe’s customers are local Taiwanese.
“There are some foreigners, but our main customers are Taiwanese,” Xinkat said. “Many people try them at the event and then place orders.” Customers became interested in their products, and word-of-mouth recommendations spread. From there, Shincak hopes it will allow their business to expand even further. “We’re still little guys,” he said, “but we’re doing our best.”
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