What do people in Taiwan eat in a day?
Taiwan eats out from breakfast on. Mornings are soy milk and an egg pancake from a breakfast shop, lunch is a lunch box or a bowl of braised pork rice at about 650 kcal, and evenings end at a night market.
Typical dishes and their calories
Breakfast
Taiwan has about 20,000 breakfast shops, and many open at 5:30 and close before noon. The order is warm soy milk, sweet, or salty with vinegar, scallions and chilli oil, with dan bing, a thin egg pancake rolled up with cheese, corn or pork floss. Other favourites are shao bing, a flaky sesame flatbread, youtiao, a fried dough stick, and fan tuan, a sticky rice roll stuffed with youtiao and pickles.
Lunch
Lunch is quick and almost always eaten out. A government survey found that 61.4% of office workers eat lunch out five days a week or more. The usual pick is a bian dang, a lunch box of rice, one meat and a few vegetables, a habit from the Japanese era. Lu rou fan, fatty pork braised in soy sauce and spooned over rice, is the other classic, about 650 kcal a bowl.
Dinner
Dinner is often shared dishes with rice at home or in a small restaurant. Beef noodle soup is the dish people argue about: slow cooked beef in a dark, spiced broth with thick noodles, about 870 kcal a bowl. A clear broth version is lighter. Hot pot is a favourite for a night out with friends.
Starters
There is no starter course. Small dishes go on the table at once, and the snacks called xiao chi do the job. A scallion pancake, crisp and layered with spring onion, is about 540 kcal. Cold side dishes like smashed cucumber, seasoned tofu and braised eggs sit at the counter of most noodle shops, and you pick them up yourself.
Desserts
Shaved ice is the big one, piled with mango in summer or with beans, taro balls and condensed milk. Pineapple cake, a short pastry filled with pineapple jam, is the classic gift from Taiwan. Douhua, soft tofu pudding in syrup with peanuts, is eaten warm in winter and cold in summer.
Drinks
Bubble tea was invented in Taichung: black milk tea shaken with ice and chewy tapioca pearls. A 500 ml cup is about 350 kcal, and shops let you pick the ice and the sugar level. Taiwan also grows fine oolong tea in its mountains. Soy milk is the breakfast drink, and Taiwan Beer, a light lager, goes with night market food.
Street food
Night markets are where Taiwan snacks. Stalls open in the evening and run late, and people walk and eat. The oyster omelette, oysters and egg in a chewy sweet potato starch batter with a sweet sauce, is about 520 kcal. Stinky tofu, fried and served with pickled cabbage, is about 570 kcal. A gua bao, a steamed bun folded around braised pork belly, peanut powder and pickled greens, is about 500 kcal.
Normal there, odd elsewhere
Stinky tofu smells like a farm and tastes far milder than it smells. Many older Taiwanese did not eat beef, because oxen worked the fields, yet beef noodle soup is now one of the most loved dishes on the island. Taiwan has around 6,000 vegetarian restaurants. And breakfast shops serve burgers and toast next to soy milk and youtiao.