Taiwan: Must try foods you need to know

Taiwan will be missed, especially after experiencing Japanese food prices. The food in Taiwan was delicious, cheap, and a lot of times fried! Most of my meals consisted of the famous night markets, street vendors, or small dining establishments. Taiwan truly is a foodie’s paradise as there is no end to something new that you should try, all within a reasonable budget. Below are some notable food\meals I had during my week in Taiwan.

Upon arriving in Taiwan, getting a hot meal at 7/11 was on my list of things to try. My friend, who lives in the country, swore by their quality and prices. I was apprehensive but game for anything. Imagine my surprise when I discovered 7/11 is NOTHING like the United States. 7/11 in Asia is like a high class corner store with good food, snacks, and other things one might need. The meal I got was surprisingly delicious and filling, plus it was only about two bucks. They also sell o-nigiri, which is probably my favorite thing in the entire world. O-nigiri are triangle shaped rice encased in seaweed with various fillings (they even have a breakfast option which is eggs and ham!). These things saved my life multiple things either because I either wasn’t hungry enough for a full meal or was so mentally exhausted to deal with ordering food after a long day.

A highlight of my time in Taipei is when I left the cities to explore the countryside. Here, I basically ate snacks every two hours from the various stands. Everything was delicious and I was able to try stinky tofu! I didn’t get a picture because I ate it (an occurrence that happens at least half the time). Well…it sure did stink, you could always tell in the streets when stinky tofu was nearby, but I loved it! Those with more delicate eating habits might not enjoy it but luckily I like everything. I would say about half the time, since I don’t speak the language, I am not entirely sure what I ordered or am eating, travel is definitely not the life for the picky eater.

Another highlight of Taipei was when I went to go get soup dumplings with a fellow solo traveler. We arrived at the place and discovered it was Michelin-rated! Nervous it was going to be expensive, we went in but it was dirt cheap as well. I ate so much food that I just had some fried mushrooms for dinner from a night market.

Southern Taiwan also treated me really well – especially the feast I had with the locals that of course I took zero pictures of (I’m living in the moment, give me a break!). At the feast we had boba pudding, fish, beef, shrimp, pork, omelettes, veggies…just keep listing food! Plus, plenty and plenty of beer. I was also gifted a hot green tea egg, which is a common snack, basically an egg hard-boiled in green tea. It tasted pretty much like a normal hard-boiled egg.

My last night was spent at a night market (see the trend?) where boba tea finally won me over. Bubble tea was started in Taiwan and I had always been kind of neutral about it until I tried this brown sugar boba that had me over the moon. It was so delicious and a great memory to close up my week in Taiwan!

I need to go back to Taiwan soon, I barely scraped the top of my list of foods I wanted to try while I was there. I am excited for all the food in Japan but will definitely miss the affordable and delicious dining Taiwan had to offer.

T