Teng Feng Fish Ball Museum

The history of Tengfeng Fishball Museum can be traced back to 1940, with the earliest name being Wei-hsiang Fish Ball Shop founded by two men, Lin Shui-mu and Hsu Bin-song. The two elders became friends after being forcibly conscripted by the Japanese and serving in the same platoon. After surviving the war, the pair partnered up and opened a business in Tamsui (Danshui). It wasn't until 1984 that the second generation went their separate ways. Currently, there are four fish chip shops in Danshui, other than Tengfeng and Hsuyi. The founder of Hoyi was also originally a chef at Weihsiang.

Fish crisps were introduced in 1963. The curator at the Tengfeng Fish Ball Museum, Lin Kuo-feng, remembers very well, since that was the year plastic bags were produced. Finally, there was a way for the fish crisps to preserve their crunchiness and make it easy for tourists to take home.

However, not all kinds of fish can be made into fish crisps, for a whole fish needs to be shredded. Fish with hard bones, too much bones, or strong flavors are not good ingredients for fish crisps. And, the origin of fish crisps is very much like that of fish balls; being due to overabundance of fish catches.

To accommodate to modern tastes and trends for health, Tengfeng has made some changes in the production process. The most important change is the fried process being replaced by a lower temperature bake-fry. Using the minimum of oils and method of half-bake, half-stir fry to create the same great tasting fish crisps with 26% less oil, our crisps are the least oily fish crisps on the market today.

In recent years, Tengfeng has slowly undergone a transformation by delving into tourism markets. In Danshui's Old Street there is the Fish Ball Museum, and in the factory on Zhong Zhen E. Road, there are tour guides to let visitors know more about fish balls and crisps. Individual visitors can go to the museum on Old Street; since the factory tour and fish ball DIY activities are only designed for groups. The cost is NT$250 per person for one and a half hours.