It was late on a Monday night. I’d just finished teaching and had walked into my local 7-11 to grab a bite to eat before the walk home.
A girl I’d seen regularly around the area came up and started to talk to me. She told me her parents lived in Taichung and she’d just come [...]

I’m not really a big fan of seafood to begin with. Seafood costs more then beef and chicken and is usually fiddly or riddled with bones. Call me lazy old fashioned but I don’t want to spend longer eating my food then somebody took to prepare it.
Especially if that person is me.
Having said that the [...]

When I came to Taiwan there was two things I was deathly afraid of that the country wouldn’t be able to provide me with.
It wasn’t the quality of life I was used to, reliable internet, cheap food, language barriers or
No, what I feared most of all was the lack of slurpees and Milo.

When someone first suggested I try a Taiwanese buffet, horrible memories of overpriced all you can eat Chinese places started to flood back.
Why on earth would I have traveled halfway across the world so sample an assortment of substandard dishes that I pay extra for due to the choice available?!
Thankfully someone forgot to tell Taiwan [...]

Food in Taiwan is a continuous tug of war for me. On one end of the scales is the crazy Asian food that terrifies me but on the other are the familiar tastes I simply love.
I haven’t had too many experiences on the weird food meter yet, although someone told me the other day I [...]

When I arrived in Taiwan in the back of my mind was the acknowledgement that, should push come to shove I could very easily find myself in a culinary situation I wasn’t comfortable with.
Whether it being someone’s guest, ordering food I didn’t quite understand or sheer peer pressure of eating a local delicacy I knew [...]

Simply put, the week after I lost my phrasebook was hell.
I’d been using my Lonely Planet mandarin phrasebook long enough that I was familiar with where to flip to for certain things, but I was far from memorising anything yet.
As such as my confidence when out in public plummeted. I dreaded ordering food and avoided [...]

A few years back I had a brother staying in Japan. Occasionally for him times were tough and although I’m not sure exactly how tough they got, he always made it through surviving on $1 McDonalds hamburgers.
I’m not sure if it was chicken or beef burger (for $1 I presume it was chicken or beef [...]

Despite reassurances that Milo is available here I’ve yet to see it. In all honesty I haven’t really looked that but still, upon arriving one of the things you quickly realise is that milk is barely a drop a of rain on the cuisine landscape of Taiwan.

As I’ve spent more time here in Taiwan I’ve found my phobia of tackling the street vendors has started to ease a bit.
Armed with a basic knowledge of how to say ‘I would like (number)’ and my trusty finger to point I’m beginning to ease into trying out what’s on offer.
Last week I walked past [...]