Leisure Time Dining Creates the Chihkan Dingxiang Feast Bento BoxTelling a Coastal Travel Story Through Local Penghu Ingredients

leisure time
Apr 18
6 min read

As part of Chihkan Village’s “Chihkan Sustainable Coastal Half-Day Tour,” participants joined intertidal zone walks, ecological observation, village tours, oyster shell craft activities, and enjoyed a special nine-compartment bento box prepared by Leisure Time Dining, called the “Chihkan Dingxiang Feast.”

For Leisure Time Dining, this was never just about preparing a meal for an event.It was an attempt to bring Chihkan’s local character into a single bento box through food. From the fresh flavors of the intertidal zone, to the home-style dishes familiar to people in Penghu, to ingredients that reflect everyday village life, all of these became the foundation of this bento’s design.

What we wanted to make was not a flashy plated meal or a crowd-pleasing Western-style menu, but a bento that lets people truly taste Penghu’s local character, see the unique identity of Chihkan, and also move away from the usual image of a heavy, greasy traditional boxed meal.

This bento began with Chihkan’s everyday life and the flavors of the sea

Chihkan is a place deeply connected to the sea.The tides, fishing life, village community, and daily food culture are all closely tied together. When designing this bento, Leisure Time Dining did not create a generic event menu with no connection to the place. Instead, with the guidance of Teacher Lin Yu-Chen, we returned to Chihkan itself and thought carefully about how this place should be presented through food.

That gave the bento a very clear direction:to focus on local Penghu ingredients, keep the familiar flavors of the region, and use a nine-compartment format to make the content more complete and better suited to the rhythm of the half-day tour experience.

Compared with a standard lunch box, the nine-compartment style was a better fit for what we wanted to express. It allowed us to bring together different flavors, textures, and local elements in one meal, so that participants were not simply eating to fill up, but were actually tasting the story this experience was meant to share.

Inside the Chihkan Dingxiang Feast Bento Box

The dishes in this bento were built around ingredients commonly found in Penghu and the kinds of flavors that people here grow up with.While the box may look rich and varied, the idea behind it is actually quite simple: to let people gently enjoy the taste of the sea, the comfort of home-style cooking, and the local character of Chihkan all at once.

Opening | The Beginning of the Sea Breeze

Chilled tofu with century egg and sea snail, marinated anchovies with aged vinegar, and Penghu ice plant with peanut sesame dressing

The meal begins with lighter, refreshing flavors.Sea snail, anchovies, and ice plant each carry a strong sense of Penghu’s coastal character. Paired with tofu, aged vinegar, and sesame dressing, the flavors and textures feel balanced rather than overpowering, making this a natural and refreshing way to start the bento.

Development | Wind and Fire

Seaweed glass noodles, crispy fried anchovies, Penghu pickled melon with smoked tuna, and traditional seaweed vegetable tofu fritters

This part of the meal brings in slightly bolder flavors.The fried anchovies are a very direct expression of Penghu’s taste. Fresh spring anchovies are lightly treated with rice wine to remove any fishiness, then deep-fried and finished with salt and pepper. The result is simple, clean, and full of character. The seaweed glass noodles and seaweed vegetable fritters continue that coastal flavor profile, while the pickled melon with smoked tuna adds another layer rooted in traditional local cooking. Together, these dishes are not too heavy, but they leave a clear impression.

Among them, the seaweed vegetable tofu fritter is our reinterpretation of a traditional Penghu fried taro shred dish. The idea comes from a home-style recipe often made by grandmothers in Xiyu, where mixed vegetables are folded into batter and fried over medium heat. For our version, Leisure Time Dining used tofu for its moisture and soft texture, replacing part of the water, egg, and flour usually used in the mixture. We also let the natural saltiness of the seaweed do more of the seasoning work, so the dish could stay lighter and closer to the ingredient itself.

Into | Sea and Land

Loofah braised with thick-shelled clams

This dish is a strong reflection of Penghu.The flavor of the thick-shelled clams is clear and distinctive. They are not like farmed clams with thin shells and fuller meat, but they express the character of a specific stretch of sea in a much more direct way. Angled loofah and shredded radish bring the dish back to a softer, more familiar everyday taste. When seafood and vegetables are cooked together like this, there is no need for heavy seasoning. The result already feels deeply local, and it is one of Penghu’s most rustic and countryside-style dishes.

Center | Coming Back to the People

Sweet potato shred rice with fish floss

Sweet potato shred rice is a familiar staple for many people in Penghu.In earlier times, Penghu relied on imported rice shipped in by boat, so polished rice was considered precious. Local crops were often added in to make meals go further. Unlike the more common version where sweet potato is simply cut into chunks and cooked with rice, Penghu’s sweet potato shreds are first sliced thin, then sun-dried for long-term storage. During that process, they also take on the salty breeze of Penghu’s sea air.

This dish was included in the bento not only because it is representative, but also because it helps ground the entire meal. Paired with fish floss, it tastes simple, comforting, and very much like home.

Stillness | Closing

Wild rock perch soup

By the end of the meal, the rhythm of the bento begins to settle.Rock perch soup is not a bold or showy flavor. Traditionally, Taiwanese home cooking often uses rice wine to remove the fishy smell in soups like this. For this dish, however, we chose to use sake instead, as a small nod to Penghu’s colonial history. The gentle aroma of the sake, together with the natural sweetness of the fish, makes this a fitting dish for the final part of the meal. It reflects the kind of grounded, everyday flavors that have always been part of Penghu’s food culture. By this point, the meal returns to something familiar, calm, and steady.

Return | The End of the Day

Penghu bayberry

The meal ends with Penghu bayberry, also known locally as shen guo, leaving the bento on a clean and refreshing note.Penghu bayberries are not especially sweet, but their aroma is light and natural. Compared with fruit grown on large commercial farms, Penghu’s bayberries are less sugary and polished, yet they carry a freshness that feels true to the island itself. Delicate in flavor and full of juice, they are in peak season around March, which is exactly why we felt they were the right choice for the final fruit course.

What Leisure Time Dining wanted to make was more than just an event meal

In creating the Chihkan Dingxiang Feast nine-compartment bento, what mattered most to us was not making the box look elaborate or impressive.What mattered was whether the food truly belonged to this place.

If this was part of Chihkan Village’s sustainable coastal tour, then the meal should not feel like something added on at the end. It should be part of the experience itself. After participants walked through the intertidal zone, listened to the guide, and explored the village, the food they ate should also connect back to local ingredients and everyday life. That was the main idea behind how we designed this bento.

Bringing Penghu’s local food culture together in one bento

Penghu’s food has never depended on complexity to stand out.More often, it is memorable because the ingredients are straightforward and the cooking is rooted in daily life.

The same is true for the Chihkan Dingxiang Feast bento. Leisure Time Dining brought together elements that belong to Penghu — anchovies, seaweed, thick-shelled clams, sweet potato rice, and seasonal fish — not to turn them into tourist symbols, but to let people feel how life here is actually lived, how people eat, and how the sea and the land have always been part of everyday meals.

To us, that is what makes a bento meaningful.It is not something made only for photos. It is a way for a half-day tour to carry its own story through food as well.

The local flavor Leisure Time Dining wanted to share through the Chihkan Sustainable Coastal Tour

For Leisure Time Dining, the Chihkan Dingxiang Feast nine-compartment bento was an attempt to bring together Penghu’s local ingredients, cultural character, and travel experience in one meal.

We did not want to make it into a standard event lunch box.We wanted it to feel rooted in the place, while still carrying Leisure Time Dining’s own style of cooking. The hope was that during the Chihkan coastal tour, participants would not only see the village, but also remember its flavors through this bento.

For anyone interested in Penghu’s local ingredients, culturally rooted bento design, or food experiences connected with travel, the Chihkan Dingxiang Feast offers a very direct way to begin understanding it.