Food & shopping

Some typical food items: Mango, honey vinegar, young ginger, soya sauce, wasabi

So, as my year long stay in Taiwan draws to an end I would like to use the remaining blog posts to review various aspects of life here. Today is food and shopping.

Eating out

As someone who loves rice dishes it was easy for me to adapt to Taiwanese cuisine. The mainstay are rice, noodle and dumpling dishes but there is plenty of variety and much that I had not come across before. One of the first meals I enjoyed was cooked in front of me as I sat at a bar-like table (hotplate) with the chef one side and me the other. Cabbage, fish, bamboo shoots and other ingredients were tossed onto the sizzling hot plate and scooped up at intervals to be flipped over. Once ready the meal was moved across to me in a pile rather like collecting winnings at a roulette table. The meal remained on the edge of the hotplate which kept it warm while you ate, no plates to wash, no waiters, very novel and efficient. Eating good meals like this one for as little as 60 NTD was easily possible anywhere. In towns and cities food is available every few yards from open fronted high street diners serving up typical dishes. The only downside to these smaller eatery's was that they tended not to sell drinks and relied on soup to wash food down. Cola was sometimes available but beer rarely an option, which I though was a pity as it would have complimented many a meal.

Chopsticks

Before I go on I have to mention something about chopsticks. My chopstick skills were never very good but they have improved markedly since being here and I noticed that when I was not conscious of using them I could manage very well. What I like about chopsticks is that they are so simple, easy to clean and easier on the mouth than the cold metal of forks. However there were times when a fork would have made life a lot easier and the meal more rewarding so maybe there is a case to be made for the 'chork'.

Restaurants

Most restaurants I visited served food like Chinese restaurants do in Europe allowing everyone to pick from various dishes. The average price for meals here would vary between 150NTD-500NTD.

Night markets

Night markets are very popular in Taiwan and similar to fairs in Europe. Here you can eat tofu, noodles and fried fare from stalls dotted along the way while trying to win a bottle of scotch throwing rings. Much of the food has been marinated in soya sauce which tends to leave everything brown and looking rather unappetizing but looks can be deceiving. However not being a great tofu fan myself I did draw the line at eating stinky tofu which is probably the most famous dish and is known for its distinctive smell which wafts across every night market.

Lunch boxes

The Taiwanese like their lunch boxes, which provide workers and students with basic cheap lunchtime meals in a cardboard box. These typically contain fried chicken or pork, tofu, rice and cabbage and can be bought for as little a 50NTD.

Markets

I really enjoyed the fruit and vegetable markets, which lining certain streets can be almost 1km long. The variety is huge with many things I had not seen before. Pineapple, bananas and mangoes* are everywhere, at least when in season*, and some mangoes need two hands to carry them away. Butchers and fishmongers can also be found at intervals in the markets and being a small island you can be reasonably sure that the fish are fresh. Scooters are also in abundance here but I shall deal with them in the travel & traffic post.

Department stores

In the big cities like Taipei and Taichung there are plenty of multi-floored department stores with all the glitz and glamor of Chanel, Burberry's and the like. Here you can often find food markets in the basement that sell western foodstuff that is hard to find elsewhere. In Taichung I came across an excellent Japanese supermarket that also sold Gouda cheese and English marmalade, which was nice occasionally to have a taste of home.

I have probably missed out a lot of important details here so I will update the post occasionally. Also up coming: Travel & traffic ... People & places