This is a land of excess and passing fads. The standard attitude is: you like this? Great, let me get you 10o’s of these until you’ve had so many that you absolutely loath it, then let’s move on the next hip thing. It’s like that new hit song on the radio played over and over, day in and day out. The people are very hospitable, often too hospitable that they forget there’s a limit to how much goodness one can take. This way of living is shown in every aspects of life: food and wine; work and play.
Excess of Food
The food is sensational not only from its taste but, it’s economical as well. Being an Asian country, a gourmet meal comes cheaper than a dodgy hamburger from McDonalds here. From Grandma's home-cooked banquet where my plate is constantly being refilled, to posh all-you-can-eat buffet that address quantity without sacrificing quality. The gastronomic pleasures never cease to be fulfilled here. When I said posh all-you-can-eat buffet, I mean 5-star hotel restaurant serving lobsters, oysters, and other expensive seafood. When did you last see gourmet chefs behind the counter making your dish to order in a buffet?
What do you do with your hands while roaming the Night-markets or commercial districts? You fill them with snacks to stuff your face with of course! The street food culture here is comparable to Hong Kong or Singapore. Vendors populate a whole district in some places, hundreds of stands as far as the eye can see. They are mostly easy to eat finger foods: grills, fried stuff, anything and everything braised in master stock, pastry, takoyaki, Chinese pancake, various dumplings, buns...etc. A huge fried chicken fillet of 30cm in diameter, much like a chicken parmie without the cheese, would cost about $2 AUS. I walked around with food in my hands while checking out other stands. Of note, smelly tofu is the equivalent of Blue Vein Cheese in terms of strong smell and taste. Fermented tofu that is fried till crispy on the outside, and soft and squishy on the inside; usually served with pickled vegetables. Whole streets permeate with smells that flirt with the nostril, the sound of frying and the clanging of woks, then the mouth-watering presentation of the colours, the variety of choices, and all obtainable quick and cheap with just one shout of order away. It's a hellish nightmare of a place for anyone on a diet.
Taiwanese cuisine has branched off the traditional Chinese route and taken on more Japanese and Western influence than any other Asian cuisine. Japanese restaurants are everywhere to be seen, as well as other Asian cuisine. One thing I can complain about is that due to the American influence, most coffee places serve filtered coffee. The sparse Italian Espresso cafes do not do it justice. Many Western cuisines takes on local twists though, and acquire a taste that fits the locals.
The novelty factor also plays a big part. One of the new fad while I was there was egg tarts that come still in the eggshells. They carefully crack the egg at the top, makes the filling, pour it back into the shells and finish with the tarts in the original eggshell. You eat it with a spoon. An example for the passing fad culture: couple of years back some celebrity combined egg tarts and Portuguese tarts into a new breed of Portuguese egg tart; it turned into a rave overnight. Specialty bakeries that make only these tarts opened one after another, hundreds of them took the whole island by storm. But when the trend dies down, the whole hundreds of shops close down within a couple months.
Then there's the pressure to innovate. We went to a winery that had everything ranging from sausage, ice blocks, cake, pastry, sweets, jelly, and crackers with the wine in it. Not all ideas work of course, but I did learn a lot about rice and barley based Chinese wine as oppose to grape-based Western wine. I don't know much about beer, but we had 'raw beer' over there that expires within a couple of weeks. It tastes lighter on the tongue, more refreshing and not as bitter than the average pint. There are even flavoured beers of various fruits.
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