Culinary Heaven – Taiwan Street Food

I flew in last night around 9 pm. My uncle & I walked out from his place on Kun Ming Road in Shing-mun-ding (trendiest neighborhood in Taipei) to Hua-shee-jieh road (Snake Alley). On the way there, I stopped by a street cart for a bbq spicy Corn on the Cob for 1$. It’s nothing like you’ve had in US.

Then once we got to the alley, we sat outside a stall on these mini-stools & had mixed Tempura soup slathered on with some sauce similar to BBQ sauce.

People wonder how the Asians stay so thin. I’m no scientist but I will tell you a huge attribute is MODERATION & TEA. The US has brainwashed people into thinking how horrible Carbohydrates are. Well yeah, obviously if you’re meal is a huge hamburger bun with double fried red meat, a side of fries and coke! Europeans also eat a lot of pasta & bread and stay thin. Hence the book “why French women don’t get Fat.”

People have attempted to strip away carbs, yet Americans are still the most obese in the world. The Asians eat smaller portions and a bit of everything. An equal portion of rice/noodles, a small portion of greens, a small portion of meat, some tofu or beans for soy/fiber. Some religion like Islam & Judaism condemn Pork as if it’s the dirtiest thing on the planet. Ya pigs seem dirty, but pork has been eaten in Asian cultures for as long as history can remember. The Japanese are known to be the healthiest people in the world, considering they eat rarely any fried food, all freshly caught seafood, some pure noodles and pork. They even eat rare pork. It couldn’t be that dirty if the Asians are living such long lives and healthy.

Tea is key. Every tea has it’s own specialty. Green tea has been known to be the best for metabolizing. It also contains a lot of caffeine so it’s good to switch it up with others.

This morning my uncle asked if I wanted some soy milk and bread. Blah, sounds boring. We took a walk & I was up to eat anything that looked yummy.

We stopped by a bakery, and they had a divided pot (popular everywhere, even at 7/11s) filled with appetizers. The sauce is a mix of soy sauce & extract of tea bags. I got a box and filled it with tofu, a huge chicken leg, tea-brewed egg and a turnip cake. My uncle looked at me weird like “you sure you wanna eat that for breakfast?” Hey, good food can come at any time of the day! And surely enough, I scarfed that whole bad boy down in 2 minutes.

Taiwan is humid all year round, and is in Typhoon season around summer time til mid-Autumn. Recently there was a huge Typhoon that wiped out villages outside of Taipei, unfortunately. Relief efforts and non-profits have been focused to help out with Typhoon Marokot.

It’s pretty warm out right now, sticky warm, but bareable.

Taipei, capital of Taiwan where I am, is like a mini-NY. High rise buildings, shopping malls, homes (apts) stacked on top of each other. It’s a small island so the best way to condense is to stack, stack, stack!

The Metro subway is sophisticated like Hong Kong & NY. Everyone takes it, Incredibly simple to navigate, any grade school children can figure it out, and cheap. Most people take taxi’s or motorbikes, not many own cars.

What I also enjoy about Taiwan vs the other Asian countries is that people mind their own business. It’s like that in more advanced countries. And it depends on how you look at it. The more advanced a country, stereotypically the more self-absorbed they are. Which is good in some cases when traveling for a purpose out of leisure because you don’t want people bothering you about where you’re going or begging you for change. But in other cases, there’s a beauty in the less developed countries because individuals genuinely wonder about the world out there. They keep an open mind and really have to hear what you have to say, where you come from, and can’t wait to share it with their family and friends.

It’s a good break though here from my last trip. No body bothers to look at you or talk to you. However if you ever need help with directions, they are among the warmest in helping you out. It’s like one big family here. Everybody get up and sing!!