Ban tiao represents traditional Hakka cuisine and serves as Meinong's calling card. Today, a bowl of colorful ban tiao signifies not only culinary innovation but also Meinong's commitment to sustainable development.

These colorful ban tiao are the creative results of youth returning to Meinong, incorporating local rice and natural produce. They start with Kaohsiung Rice No. 147—a consistent champion in rice competitions. The rice is soaked, softened, and ground into a fine slurry, then colored with juices from sweet potato leaves, dragon fruit, beetroot, and butterfly pea flowers. Poured into molds and steamed for 30 seconds to one minute, the mixture forms soft sheets. After cooling and setting, these sheets are removed from molds and cut into strips. The colorful ban tiao can be blanched, served cold, added to soups, or stir-fried—maintaining their additive-free, natural, handmade character while presenting Hakka cuisine at its healthiest and most beautiful.

Beyond ban tiao and paper umbrellas, the Meinong Hakka settlement (美濃客庄, in Kaohsiung) produces distinctive local specialties: Kaohsiung Rice No. 147, white jade radish, white water snowflakes, and Orange Honey tomatoes.

1909 marked a pivotal moment in Meinong's development. That year, the Zhutzimen Power Plant was completed—Taiwan's third hydroelectric facility, southern Taiwan's first power plant, and a pioneering integration of green energy with water infrastructure.

The plant ushered in southern Taiwan's electric age. Its tailwater flowed into irrigation channels, expanding Meinong's cultivable paddy fields eightfold to 4,100 jia (approximately 4,000 hectares). Meinong became southern Taiwan's vital granary, launching 70 prosperous years of agriculture: starting in 1936, the region adopted a cultivation cycle of two annual rice harvests plus one tobacco crop.

Local Premium Rice Meets Creativity

2002 marked another pivotal moment. That year brought multiple challenges: Taiwan joined the WTO, the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation underwent restructuring, and tobacco cultivation gradually ceased. Facing these shifts, Meinong's farmers embarked on a decade-long transformation with assistance from the farmers' association. Beyond Kaohsiung Rice No. 147's annual output value of NT$150 million, white water snowflakes, snap beans, and Orange Honey tomatoes each generated approximately NT$400 million in market value.

Today, the Zhutzimen Power Plant's original generators have completed their service. New generators have taken up the torch under the name Zhumen Units, continuing to provide green energy for southern Taiwan while their tailwater still flows into the Shihtzutou Canal to irrigate fields.

Farmers have also worked to develop the region's distinctive character. Working alongside the farmers' association, they've embraced traceability systems, organic farming, and farm-to-table concepts to develop sustainable agriculture—aligning with the UN's recently promoted " Sustainable Gastronomy " initiative. Rather than pursuing maximum yield, they practice crop rotation with one rice harvest and one winter crop annually, enriching the diversity of produce while allowing the land to regenerate. Young people who have returned to Meinong use local rice, ingredients, and creativity to craft colorful ban tiao, joining farmers as practitioners of sustainable development.