Street vendor sets up his bicycle drawn food cart near a train station.
There are so many places to eat in Taiwan that I wonder if anyone cooks at home. Night markets focused on food cater mainly to tourists but every neighbourhood has its small food establishments. Restaurants, cafés, street stalls and shopping centre food courts abound.
While the prospect of different food is often one of the attractions of travelling, how different we really want it to be is of course an individual matter. Here is some of the food I noticed in Taiwan, some of which I tasted and some of which I would never try.
There are some scary looking items on the night market grills and even in the mall food courts.
Breakfast from the 7 Eleven, anyone? I believe they are eggs.
7 Eleven has a large presence but some of their offerings differ from those in their North American stores.
If you want something familiar how about a $99 Subway sandwich? The currency is the New Taiwan Dollar (TWD). The exchange rate was about 23 TWD to $1 Canadian or 30 TWD to $1 US during my visit.
Staff prepare food in a tiny kitchen open to the street. The sidewalk often divides kitchens and eating areas.
This kitchen is as close to the street as possible.
A specialized pot to cook individual servings of noodles reminded me of an egg poacher.
When someone asked me how the food was in Taiwan, the answer that sprang to mind was "mysterious". Sometimes there is an English menu or English translation of the names of the dishes. Many restaurants have photos of menu items or plastic models of the food. Japanese and Thai food are both popular as well as that from other Asian countries and some restaurants offer European style cuisine.
Plastic model of mushrooms and greens available in a restaurant.
A very good meal came from a vegetarian buffet in a food court. Cost - $105 TWD.
Craving vegetables, I ate this plate of food from a street café a with no apparent ill effects. Cost - $60 TWD.
A fairly typical meal from a mall food court. In the middle is a thin omelette filled with rice. In this case the rice was in a tomato sauce but sometimes it will be plain. On the right is a curry sauce. Cost - $138 TWD.
Sunday morning I treated myself to breakfast in an upscale local café complete with décor - and prices to match. I chose a fruit waffle but it was more like thick crusty bread and along with the fruit had mango ice cream. Various sandwiches were featured on the menu and most seemed ordinary except the Elvis sandwich which intrigued me. I never did find out what was in it, language being a bit of a barrier.
Sunday breakfast at the Chadór cafe in Tainan.
Fruit waffle at the Chadór. Cost for waffle plus tea - $250 TWD.
I later spotted these fish shaped waffles in a food court.
Spring onion and cheese butter rolls - delicious.
Green tea flavoured ice cream - okay but I don't need to try it again.