Goose rice

What it is

Goose rice (鵝肉飯) is the one-bowl meal at a goose shop. White rice is topped with slices or shreds of goose, braised bamboo shoots (筍乾) and goose fat in which shallots have been fried. The fat gives the rice much of its flavour. Many shops also pack the same things into a lunchbox (鵝肉便當) with cabbage and a braised egg.

Where it came from

Chinese settlers brought goose farming to Taiwan in the Ming-Zheng period of the 17th century. It grew steadily from the Japanese colonial era, but until the early 1980s it was mostly a farm sideline, with flocks raised close to the towns that bought them. The White Roman goose (白羅曼鵝) is now the main breed, raised mostly in Yunlin, with Chiayi, Tainan, Pingtung and Changhua the other key areas.

Goose shops are the industry's main customer. The agriculture ministry puts their share at about 70 per cent of all goose meat, against roughly a fifth sold through markets. Goose fat has become a product in its own right, prized for its aroma and high smoke point. In Kaohsiung, the son of Le Pont's founder began selling his mother's goose-fat shallot oil under its own brand in 2008. The family says one jar takes three geese.

How it is made

The meat comes from the geese a shop cooks for its sliced plates. Many are cooked gently in brine to make salt-water goose (鹽水鵝), then cooled or dipped in cold water so the meat stays juicy and the skin firms up. Others are smoked. Wenpapa Goose in Tainan uses birds raised for 90 to 100 days. Bamboo shoots are braised separately. Shallots are sliced thin and fried in rendered goose fat, and fat and shallots go over the rice together.

How to eat it

Goose rice is a quick lunch or dinner. Many diners add a plate of sliced goose to share, smoked or salt-water, and a goose soup or some offal. At A Cheng Goose (阿城鵝肉) you choose the front half, mostly boneless breast, or the fattier, more tender back half.