Awajiya will hold a live cooking and sales event for the representative station bento of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the “Pai Kuat Bento” (pork chop bento) normally produced and sold at Taipei Main Station, from February 16 to 23 at Shin-Kobe Station and at the event venue of the Hanshin Department Store Umeda Main Store in Osaka, Japan.
The collaboration with TRA began with the 2019 Railway Bento Festival in Japan, and has been further developed under an international friendship agreement between station bento makers concluded in December 2023. This relationship has now been concretized through the sharing of manufacturing techniques. Over roughly the past year, Awajiya has visited Taipei multiple times, inspecting TRA’s bento factory, sharing the Pai Kuat Bento recipe, and facilitating technical exchanges between chefs.
Seasoning is based on the TRA recipe, using five-spice powder and star anise to bring the braised pork chop as close as possible to the authentic local flavor as the main dish. The bento is rounded out with a soy-braised egg, braised cube-shaped fish cake, braised rolled yuba (tofu skin), and boiled vegetables—Chinese cabbage, carrot, and broccoli—served together with white rice.
Due to differences in ingredient procurement conditions and production environments within Japan, it is difficult to reproduce every element exactly to local Taiwanese specifications. However, with the cooperation of TRA, Awajiya has aimed to get the flavor as close to the original as possible. The container is the same specification as the one used at Taipei Main Station, and the disposable chopsticks and napkins also feature the TRA logo. The price is 1,480 yen (tax included).
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