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Food In Taiwan-cuisine-dining

Food In Taiwan
For the most part, the foods of Taiwan are derived from mainland Chinese cuisines. It is possible to find food and almost every other Chinese cuisine on the island. Taiwanese versions of these cuisines tend to be somewhat greasy, though, and completely authentic mainland cuisines are rare. This is especially true for the Cantonese cuisine, as demonstrated by the lack of Cantonese speakers on the island. The Taiwanese are also passionately in-love with eggs and seafood, as you will discover during your stay on the island. Expect to find kernels of corn on most sandwiches and pizzas and in many other foods.
Taiwan also has many of its own local specialties. Perhaps because of its long isolation from mainland China and distance from other parts of the world, most cities and towns in Taiwan are individually famous for special foods. Virtually every city has its famous specialties; many Taiwanese tourists will go visit other cities on the island only to try the local foods, then return home.
For example,
Ilan is famous for its mochi, a sticky rice snack often flavored with sesame, peanuts or other flavorings.

Yonghe, a suburb of Taipei, is famous for its soy milk and breakfast sandwiches

Taichung is famous for its sun cakes, a kind of sweet stuffed pastry that is ususlally round like the sun.
Jiayi,
it's square cookies, also called cubic pastry, crispy layered cookies cut into squares and sprinkled liberally with sesame seeds. Some other city is famous for it's moon cakes. Taiwan also has remarkably good . Among the chain stores, the 'We Care' bakeries offer some of the better options, such as whole wheat loaves, french bread or sour breads and ciabatta.
All Mahayana Buddhists, which account for the majority of adherents in Taiwan, aspire to be pure vegetarian in deference to the Buddha's teaching of non-violence and compassion. So, vegetarian restaurants (called su-shr in Mandarin, and often identified with the 卍 symbol) can be found spread all over the island, and they run from cheap buffet style to gourmet and organic. Buffet styled restaurants (called 自助餐, which means "Serve Yourself Restaurant") are common in almost every neighborhood in large cities, and unlike the 'all-you-can-eat' buffets (which charge a set price, usually ranging from NT$250 - NT$350 including dessert and coffee/tea), the cost is estimated by the weight of the food on your plate. Rice (there is usually a choice of brown or white) is charged separately, but soup or cold tea is free and you can refill as many times as you like. NT$90 - NT$120 will buy you a good sized, nutritious meal.
However, if you cannot find a veggie restaurant, don't freak out. Taiwanese people are very flexible and most restaurants will be happy to cook you up something to suit your tastes. The following sentences in Mandarin might be helpful: Wo chr su - I'm vegetarian, Wo bu chr rou - I don't eat meat. However, as Mandarin is a tonal language, you might need to say both, plus practice your acting skills to get yourself understood. Good luck! NB: If a restaurant refuses your order, don't push the issue. The reason will not be an unwillingness to accommodate your request, but because the basic ingredients of their dishes may include chicken broth or pork fat.
Although vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan do not aspire to vegan principles, due to the fact that Taiwanese do not have a tradition of eating dairy products, almost all dishes at Chinese style veggie restaurants will actually be vegan.
There are also the standard fast food places such as McDonalds (a standard Big Mac Meal costs NT$115), Kentucky Fried Chicken and MOS Burger. In addition there are large numbers of convenience stores (such as 7-11 and Family Mart) that sell things like tea eggs, sandwiches, cold noodles, pastas and drinks.
The cheapest food can be found in back-alley noodle shops and night market stalls, where you can get a filling bowl of noodles for around NT$35-70.
As with Chinese cuisine elsewhere, food in Taiwan is generally eaten with chopsticks and served on large plates placed at the center of the table. Unlike in the West, however, a serving spoon might not accompany the dishes, and instead guests will use their own chopsticks to transfer food to their plates. Some people unaccustomed to this way of eating may consider this unhygienic, though it is usually quite safe. However, those who prefer to use a separate utensil for serving have the option of requesting communal chopsticks (公筷 gongkuai), and can gently encourage friends to use them if they do not automatically do so.

Drink

Water
The general rule in Taiwan regarding drinking water is that it should only be drunk if it has been boiled (and preferably filtered). The locals do it, and so should you. If this is not possible, then you should buy bottled water.

Taipei, the water board officially declares the water they treat to be safe to drink. However, even if you rely on official guarantees, you can not rely on the piping in every building to be up to the same standard. Unless the building is very new, you should regard tap water as being safe to drink only once it has been boiled for at least 3 minutes. At most MRT stations (the Taipei Underground) you can usually find a drinking fountain to refill a water bottle. The water here is officially guaranteed as safe to drink and should have a recent chemical analysis posted above, for those with extreme interest in water quality.

• In other parts of Taiwan, water is generally safe to drink after boiling.
• Alcohol
  Traditional alcoholic drinks in Taiwan are very strong. Kaoliang is the most famous alcoholic drink. A distilled grain liquor, it is extremely strong, usually 140 proof or more, and often drunk straight.
  Taiwan also produces many types of Shaoxing rice wine, which are considered by many as being some of the best in the world.
  Taiwanese people enjoy beer on ice. A wide variety of imported beers are available, but the standard is Taiwan Beer, produced by a former government monopoly. It is brewed with fragrant penglai rice in addition to barley giving it a distinctive flavor.
  Soft drinks
  Taiwan is a great place for fruit drinks. Small fruit-juice bars make them fresh on the spot and are experts at creating fruit-juice cocktails (non-alcoholic, of course). zong-he - mixed - is usually a sweet and sour combination and mu-gwa niou-nai is iced papaya milk. If you don't want ice (though it is safe in Taiwan, even at road side vendors) say, chu bing and no sugar - wu tang.
  Soy milk, or doujiang, is a great treat. Try it hot or cold. Savoury soy milk is a traditional Taiwanese breakfast dish. It is somewhat of an acquired taste as vinegar is added to curdle the milk. Both sweet and savoury soy milk are often ordered with you-tiao, or deep fried dough crullers.
  There are a lot of pseudo health drinks in Taiwanese supermarkets and convenience stores. Look out for asparagus juice and lavender milk tea for example.
• Sleep
  Taiwan doesn't sleep - just look at the number of 24-hour stores out there. But since you have to catch some zzzz's now and then...they do have
  Taiwanese hotels range in quality from seedy to very luxurious. Keep in mind however that hotels which cater specifically to Westerners tend to be outrageously expensive, while comparable and much cheaper hotels are usually available, and most taxi drivers can take you to one. In particular, the airport hotel at Taoyuan International charges about three or four times as much as a hotel in Taoyuan city which is a half hour cab ride.
  Motels can be easily found in suburbs of major cities. A single room with attached bathroom will cost you about US$40 to 50 each day.
  As in much of Asia, hotel beds in Taiwan are generally much harder than in the West. Only in the most upscale Western style hotels will you find beds any softer than a billard table.
  For the budget-minded, there are hostels in Taipei and most other sizeable cities. Camping is also available in many areas.
  Especially when you visit the regions less travelled by westerners (mostly because there is no business there), don't be shy to walk in on the more pricy hotels, especially off-season. The Ceasar, the Chateau and the Howard Beach Resort at Kenting, for example, located at one of the nicest beaches of tropical Taiwan, can be of excep

Stinky Tofu

When I first got to Taiwan, I often smelled a bad smell that I thought was from people who had thrown up on the street somewhere the night before.
It turns out the smell was a certain kind of food called stinky tofu or chou tofu in Chinese. It's tofu that has been marinated in vegetable and shrimp broth that has been fermenting for months. Apparently, there is one type of stinky tofu that is served with goose blood, but I couldn't find that kind.
It actually doesn't taste as bad as it smells. I tried it a couple of different ways, but in the image below it's deep fried with some sauerkraut and sauce. If you can stand the smell to get close enough to the vendors' chou tofu stand, I recommend trying it because the taste is good.

Asparagus Juice

Every convenience store that I went to in Taipei has asparagus juice. It's a very sweet drink tasting like asparagus-flavored sugar water. If you have a craving for asparagus-flavored juice, you may enjoy it.

Duck Tongue

You can find duck tongues at most night markets. The person I was with said she didn't eat duck tongues because "it's like making out with a duck". I tried one anyway. It's not terrible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it.

Chicken Feet

This is a chicken foot that I ate. I couldn't figure out how to eat it at first, but later someone showed me how to eat them. You start by biting off the toes and then spitting out the bones. You don't have to bite the toenails off first. :P
There isn't much meat on them and I was told that they are good for snacking on when watching a movie. You can pick up a bag of chicken feet at any night market.

Blood on a Stick

Many Taiwan food stands sell blood on a stick. You can get pig blood or duck blood. It's usually rolled in hot sauce, peanuts, and cilantro. It's actually very tasty.

Chicken Hearts on a Stick

You can order any part of the chicken you want to eat, from chicken wombs, chicken bums to chicken intestines.

Healthy Plum Vinegar

"Healthy plum vinegar" tastes like pickled, salty plums (umeboshi) soaked in vinegar and then served over ice.

Boiled Assorted Animal Parts

One of my favorite foods from the Taiwanese night markets is a type of stand where you pick ingredients from the stand and put them in a basket. You then give the basket to the vendor and they boil the ingredients for you.
Ingredients include things like duck intestines, chicken intestines, animal tendons, and other things that I couldn't identify.
This is one of the best foods that I've ever eaten. If you can't stomach the weird animal parts, you can just choose noodles, vegetables, and mushrooms.

Rooibus Tea Latte

I generally avoid Starbucks because their coffee is bad and I don't like their business practices. But when traveling they are often the place where I can get wireless Internet access.
Starbucks in Taiwan has a lot of different drinks, like green tea lattes, black tea lattes, and rooibus tea lattes. This is a rooibus tea latte with a sweet pork bread. I like rooibus tea and green tea, but I don't like the latte versions.

McDonalds Grilled Chicken Toasted Rice Burger

In Japan and Taiwan you can get burgers that have buns made of rice. We recommend trying MOS Burger, because at MOS Burger, they taste pretty good. McDonalds' version of the toasted rice burger is not actually that good however.