Learning to Eat in Taipei

Food adjustments are always a lot to deal with.

The picture above is a very basic, very mediocre, very unphotogenic stirfry I cooked for lunch today. It’s cabbage, carrots, and tofu, with a little garlic, soy sauce, and rice vinegar for flavor. The carrots were cooked too long, the tofu was not cooked enough. The cabbage was cooked a good amount but not at a high enough temperature. Overall it was not an enjoyable meal, but it was a remarkable one due to the fact that it was the first time I had cooked a “meal” for myself in about two months: first because of selling our house, then the move, then the temporary accommodations, and finally due to a lack of kitchenware.

But this is not the end of an ordeal, it’s the beginning of a bigger adjustment. I loved to cook in the US, but it’s not going to be the same here in Taipei. It’s going to happen less, take more planning, have a higher cost, and use a significantly different set of ingredients. And it’s just not cooking at home; eating out has its own big changes as well.

Cooking

First, let’s take the meal above. We’ll throw out the cost of the garlic, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. Consider them negligible. We’ll even leave out the rice that should accompany it. The head of cabbage was $55NTD, the two very large carrots were $37ntd, and the package of tofu was $33NTD. In the end we got about five servings out of it, which puts it at $25NTD a serving. There are $30NTD in $1USD, so about $.85 a serving, which sounds okay, right? For such a basic meal? Except the food at random restaurants is so, so cheap. A steamed bun place by my house sells shredded vegetable stuffed buns for $15NTD apiece. Two is enough for a meal for me. Even a good bowl of noodles and a plate of greens will only run me $100-$150NTD, and that’s a little more filling and much, much tastier meal than my bad stir fry. So, let’s say my stir fry saves me ~$60NTD, or $2USD, a serving over an equivalently mediocre but semi-healthy meal out. That means it only takes 100 meals before it’s paid for the $200USD wok I cooked it in, and then we’ve broken even, if we ignore the cost of the seasonings, the gas, or my time. Not to mention the fact that I now have to eat mediocre stirfry for the fourth time in a week. Obviously the math would change a lot if it wasn’t just the two of us, so I’m sure families can make cooking at home a more economic option.

But cooking is not just for cost savings, it’s also a joy to create something. We’ve got our eyes on a countertop oven that’s large enough to cook a cake or a loaf of bread in, as our apartment didn’t come with a built-in oven. Ovens, I’m told, are seen as being more for special occasions, not everyday living in an apartment. But baking bread has become dear to me, plus it’s how I plan on bribing my way into various people’s good graces, so it’s happening.

Cooking is also going to be a way to comfort ourselves with familiar food, right? But that’s going to be difficult too! Our friend visited from the US last week and brought us ten pounds of Harina Pan, the quintessential Venezuelan cooking ingredient used to make arepas. It is simply unavailable in Taiwan (we confirmed with a Venezuelan who has lived here for ten years), but is something Carolina typically cooked with 2–3 times a week in the US. Likewise, I have yet to find black beans here. Black soybeans are present though, maybe they’ll be similar. Other hard to find groceries so far: cheap/healthy peanut butter, caramel coffee syrup, healthy breakfast cereal, and popcorn kernels.

Restaurants

Eating out was a treat in the US, and if I went more than twice a week then I started to feel a lot of guilt. In Taipei, though, eating out is the norm, and there are enough options to where you don’t need to feel any guilt. Unlike the US, cheap doesn’t necessarily mean unhealthy. Within a literal stone’s throw of the door to our apartment complex are three places that will give you a bowl of hearty soup for less than $1.50USD.

And the restaurant scene is built around the notion that people are going to drop in for everyday meals. Many places are stalls with 1–2 small picnic-style tables people can share to hurriedly eat the food they pick up and move on. If they do have tables, they’re often almost all two-tops. Drinks are self-serve, and you pay when you order or leave so no waiting around.

Now, you can easily spend a lot of money on food in Taipei, especially if you have the same expectations as people have in the US. Table service? Enough seats for a group? Water refills? English menu? English-speaking staff? All of these things typically mean the restaurant will cost a little more. While I might be able to have a full, wonderful meal of dumplings for less than $2USD, there are still plenty of nearby places where I can spend the $15–20USD that a typical Austin restaurant would cost.

Coffee

Coffee is one of the places where you don’t save much money living in Taipei. Starbucks costs almost the same as in the US, and local coffeeshops range from a little cheaper to a little more expensive. Taipei has experienced a massive boom in new coffeeshops in the last five years. The first time we came here two years ago, someone told us a common joke was to ask anyone recently graduated from college or high school which of the three careers they were going to choose: go into tech, open a coffeeshop, or open a hair salon.

I love coffeeshops. It’s a place for me to work or write or read and get out of the apartment. I like the atmosphere. I like coffee. I don’t drink much, so going to a coffeeshop is also a little bit of “being out” that I don’t get otherwise. And Taipei’s coffee culture is awesome. There’s a ton of variety of the coffee drinks and the cafes themselves.

But, again, adjustment. Many coffeeshops don’t open until noon (???) and they kind of close in a rotation (some are closed Sunday, some Monday, some Wednesday) that means I have to check the hours every time I go out. Before we moved I had cut most dairy out of my diet, and pretty much any coffeeshop in Austin had a minimum of three non-dairy milk choices, but in Taipei besides Starbucks almost nowhere has non-dairy milk. One other problem is that there is a link between western culture and coffee, so most coffeeshops sell dessert and very bland western-style food.

One odd recurring feature of the coffeeshops I’ve been to is a shelf full of alcohol, even when the only alcoholic item on their menu is coffee with Bailey’s. A small cafe + roaster in our neighborhood had Cointreau sitting on the counter. What is this alcohol for? After-hours staff parties? Is it just ambience-inducing decoration? I have no idea, but gentle reader, I will find out. Also, any random local coffee shop has a 90% chance of including rabbits in their decoration (or Totoro, or both).

Vegetarian

Finally, being a vegetarian in Taiwan is both easier and more difficult. There are many, many vegetarian restaurants that are clearly labeled. However, a lot of them are buffets, and a lot of them sell similar dishes. A lot of them are also Buddhist vegetarian, which means they don’t cook with onions, garlic, shallots, or a few other ingredients. If you want variety, especially if you want something besides Chinese/Taiwanese food, you have to either travel a good amount across town or be willing to take a risk at a non-vegetarian restaurant. Which, if you’re going to be picky about what’s in broth or sauces, takes a lot of conversation attempts.

I’m being a little more flexible than I was in the US, especially when it comes to eating with other people. Getting several dishes to share, family-style, is the norm. I’ll wait to be the out of place vegetarian until I know people a little more and have a little more of a social net!