Eating 食

Depending how you look at it, the May '92 opening of McDonald's on the corner of FengChia Road and Fuxing Road is either a blessing or an evil enticement. But admit it, it would be a tremendous shame to limit your eating experiences to this and other Western-oriented establishments. Taiwan is renowned for its outstanding Chinese cuisine, both local and imported from the Mainland mainly after 1949. If you start sampling here in Taichung, you can find excellent food from all over China — Sichuan, Yunnan, Hakka, Shanxi, Beijing, Guangdong, even Mongolia (we won’t start a historico-political discussion here) — and most for very reasonable prices.

If you’re in for something special, try the duck noodles (dry or with soup) on the first alley to the right of Wenhua Road, past Fuxing Road (right side, third shop). It opens around 17:00. And if you fall for it, take a side dish of duck liver to go with the noodles!

It's not easy to avoid meat in Taiwanese/Chinese foods, but it may be possible for those with firm determination and diligence. Everybody has his own ideas about what he will and will not eat (meat, meat products, dairy, whatever). Meat is considered a delicious part of Chinese food, so even vegetable dishes often contain meat for flavoring. For vegans, there is, however, a whole variety of soy milks and other supplements. Compared to the West, there is actually more opportunity for a creative, cheap and well-balanced vegetarian diet. The main problem is that the language keeps most people who have just arrived from discerning what food is safe.

The safest bets are Buddhist restaurants; although some of the food may look like meat, it's all made from beans and vegetables. These shops or stands are often marked with a reversed swastika (this symbol may also be found on safe, \"Buddhist' packaged food in grocery stores). The drawback is that these places may use MSG or sweeteners to enhance flavor.