Coffin Bread: From an Inauspicious Name to Tainan's Japanese-Western Hybrid Delicacy

30-second overview: In the late 1940s, Hsu Liu-yi of Tainan's Shakariba renamed his original "chicken liver toast" after a professor joked that its shape resembled a stone coffin. This dish, seemingly inauspicious yet full of invention, wraps a rich filling in crisp deep-fried toast. It is not only a miniature portrait of postwar Taiwan's Japanese-Western hybrid food culture, but has also been covered by international media including CNN. From its original chicken-liver filling to today's seafood white sauce, it has risen from a local snack to one of Tainan's most representative international culinary calling cards.

In the late 1940s, as Taiwan was slowly recovering from postwar material scarcity, a novel snack quietly emerged in Tainan's bustling "Shakariba" (today's Kangle Market) ¹. It used a thick slice of deep-fried toast as its vessel and was filled generously, yet became widely known because of its bold name: "coffin bread." This Tainan snack, whose name sounds unlucky but whose taste is enticing, in fact carries the distinctive evolution of Taiwan's postwar food culture, as well as one chef's creativity and persistence.

The Birth of Chicken Liver Toast and the Name "Coffin"

The inventor of "coffin bread" was Hsu Liu-yi, founder of Chikan Eatery (originally called "Chikan Snack Shop" or "Shengchang Old Chikan") ². As early as around 1935, he had opened a snack stall in Shakariba (Shengchang). During the Japanese colonial period, he was conscripted to serve as a military laborer in Southeast Asia, where he learned techniques from Japanese cuisine and Western cooking ³. After Taiwan's postwar transfer, Hsu Liu-yi returned to Tainan, incorporated Western culinary techniques into local Taiwanese ingredients, and created the original "chicken liver toast." He also promoted "Lunch" (Western-style fast food), with both becoming representative examples of postwar hybrid cuisine at the time.

As for the origin of the name, the most widely circulated version says that in the late 1950s (around 1959), a professor from a National Taiwan University archaeological team (some accounts say a National Cheng Kung University professor, or a professor friend of Hsu's) came to the shop to try it. Seeing the shape of the toast after its lid had been opened, he thought it closely resembled an excavated stone coffin and casually joked: "This chicken liver toast looks just like the stone coffins we excavate!" ^{1 4}. After Hsu Liu-yi heard this, he felt the name was both distinctive and easy to remember, so he officially renamed the dish "coffin bread." The shop sign soon followed, and the dish became an immediate hit ².

📝 Curator's note: A seemingly unlucky name became broadly popular because of its distinctiveness. This may reflect the resilience with which Taiwanese people have often transformed life's challenges through humor and creativity.

From Chicken Liver to Seafood: The Evolution of the Filling and International Exposure

The earliest coffin bread used chicken liver as its main filling, paired with sausage, cream batter, peas, and carrots. Under conditions of material scarcity, it was an exceptionally valuable nutritional supplement ⁵. In the early days, cuttlefish was also added to the filling to create more layers of flavor. As times changed, however, and in order to suit popular tastes, the filling gradually evolved into the seafood-and-chicken white-sauce version commonly seen today.

This distinctive Taiwanese flavor also attracted international attention. CNN once produced a feature on the snack under the name "Coffin Bread," making it an internationally recognized symbol of Tainan cuisine ⁶. Yet with the rise of tourism, some seasoned food lovers have lamented that modern fillings tend to be thinner and lighter in texture, no longer as thick and substantial as in earlier days, describing this as the challenge of "form outweighing soul."

The Proper Way to Eat It and Tips for Home DIY

The proper way to eat coffin bread at Chikan Eatery is quite particular: first use a knife and fork to cut open the crisp toast lid, then spoon the rich white sauce onto the toast and eat them together, allowing the crisp exterior and smooth filling to form a strong contrast in the mouth ³. At present, one serving of coffin bread costs around NT$70.

For those who want to try making it at home, prepare thick-sliced toast (milk bread is recommended) and deep-fry it to a golden color at a precise oil temperature. For a simplified home version, the toast can be baked in an oven or pan-fried to reduce the amount of oil. For the filling, sauté onion, chicken, seafood, and vegetables in butter, then add milk and thicken lightly with cornstarch. It is especially comforting in winter, though its calorie content is relatively high, so it is best enjoyed in moderation.

Inheritance and Cultural Memory: Recommended Shops

Chikan Eatery has now been passed down to its third generation and has consistently maintained its reputation as the "No. 1 Toast Under Heaven" ^{2 7}. In addition to the place of origin at Kangle Market, Tainan has several other long-running shops worth trying:

• Wangcheng Coffin Bread: Located on Anping Old Street, it offers a miniature version of coffin bread, suitable for travelers who want to sample several kinds of snacks.
• Stalls around Chihkan Tower: These offer more affordable and localized options, serving as everyday snacks for many Tainan residents.

This snack has evolved from the invention of a single shop into a collective memory of Tainan's food culture, representing Tainan people's passion and creativity toward cuisine.

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