The Eating List
One thing I brought with me to Taiwan was an eating list I had assembled beforehand. It includes local Taiwanese specialities I found mentioned on various websites, dishes specifically recommended to me by friends, street food must eats, and all sorts of other items that seemed interesting to me at the time. I knew that I wouldn't be able to try all of the items on this list, but I wanted to at least have an understanding of which dishes were popular in Taiwan and which were considered "must try". My objective was to really dive into the Taiwanese culinary scene and to try a diverse mix of the food on offer on the island, with some focus on regional specialities.
This list ended up blowing up quite a bit.
Let me preempt the inevitable "What is Pizza Hut buffet doing on this list?". It came up on a couple Taiwan food lists, so I became a bit curious, after dismissing it at first.. After some research I had to admit to myself that this Taiwanese spin on Pizza Hut buffet was worthy of the list. First of all, we haven't had all you can eat Pizza Hut buffet in Canada in a while, but it's fairly popular in Taiwan.. and cheap.. and there's interesting pizza toppings.. and interesting side dishes and desserts. Some people rave about it.. So it made the list. I didn't end up eating pizza on my trip at all, but this is the sort of thing I wanted on my list - unique local culinary experiences. And in this case Pizza Hut made the cut.
I had a printed version of this list on hand so that I could occasionally reference it and cross off items I had tried. The problem is that this just wasn't very practical. It just wasn't realistic to look through the list and figure out which nearby restaurants served any of the remaining dishes on the list whenever I got hungry. It was good I did this research though! A number of the key dishes I really wanted to try did get stuck in my head, so it was easy to remember them without having to look at the list. It also helped me get an understanding of what sort of food to expect and what sort of variety of dishes exist on the island. Occasionally it was also good to look through the list and remind myself what was still on it. It wasn't long until I almost completely ignored the list until the end of each day, which is when I could sit back in my hotel room and cross off any items I had tried earlier on in the day.
I can't remember when this happened, but one day I ended up sweating through my tshirt and backpack enough to ruin the printed list. It got wet, the printed text started running, and the pages stuck together. When I pulled it out of my backpack at the end of the day, some of the pages ripped right there and then. I tried to salvage the list, but it was a lost cause. I had a bit of a moment of realization that the list wasn't very wieldly and that I might as well throw it out. I still had an electronic version of it on my phone that I could occasionally reference, and in the end all the research I did to create the list and all the times I spent looking through it did help me to have a better experience eating out in Taiwan.
Overall I found the Taiwanese culinary scene to be very innovative, mixing various influences and styles, with an emphasis on traditional recipes but also new takes on those recipes & modern culinary techniques and trends. There's obvious Chinese regional influences, as well as Japanese, some South-East Asian influences, aboriginal Taiwanese influences, as well as French and other Western culinary styles. Eating out is also very popular here, for various reasons. Many apartments don't have full kitchens and it is not uncommon to not even have a kitchen in your residence at all. With so many low cost restaurant and food stall options serving high quality nutritious meals, many Taiwanese residents just do not cook their meals at home. There is a cultural element to this as well, as eating out with friends and family is a key aspect of social life here.
As such I got the sense that to really experience Taiwanese culture, eating out was going to have to be a large part of that journey. And that's how this list was born.