Look What Taiwanese Eat At Work

When I was in Taipei, the amount of food I consumed at work was directly proportional to my productivity(or more like kilos on the scales). Lunch break was delightful and a lot more anticipated.

If other interns and I weren’t sitting at a table full of food with partners and associates, we were chatting up a storm over bowls of beef noodles or butadon. If the day was rainy or if I was simply put off by the scorching hot weather, I would order a bento at mid-morning and just collect it from a floor above during lunch hour.

There were a huge variety of food around the office and, most importantly, they were really good and affordable.

Take a peek at some of my colourful and wholesome bentos!
They might look huge here but, in truth, their portions were very normal and reasonable. They reminded me so much of home-cooked food it was like a little bit of heaven to remedy my homesickness when I was alone in Taipei. 

But these are not all. The highlights of this post are more of the snacks I greedily noshed on at my desk!

Most of the afternoons, around half-past three, some trainees would start circulating a takeaway menu around the department. Sometimes it’s bubble tea takeaway, fresh fruit juice, mianxian, Chinese pancakes, or fen yuan (sweet chewy tapioca balls) which we could “customize” by picking our own choice of condiments, just to name a few! These tea breaks/snacks were always very good, quick and terrifically convenient. 

Pancakes, pancakes, all types of Chinese pancakes.

This is bao xinfen yuan (包心粉圆 ), tapioca balls with red bean filling, a popular dessert from Yilan, Taiwan. I chose douhua (豆花), which is soy milk pudding, red bean and peanut to go with.

You might have come across these chewy taro or sweet potato balls more often. I personally like these better and usually couldn’t stop once I started.

With shaved ice, green bean and grass jelly. Isn’t this the perfect summer dessert?

Apart from deliveries, convenience store in Taipei was a wonderful place where I frequented to stock up my supplies for work.

They have a wide range of drinks.

Apple vinegar, grapefruit green tea, asparagus juice(!) 

…and cute refreshing beer!

…of Hello Kitty peach / banana (!!) flavoured! (which of course I didn’t consume at work.)

There were also many Japanese food to nibble.

Onigiri was always my favourite.

I guess, up till this point, you could probably tell that, for a girl my size, I eat a lot. I remember a Lithuanian friend (Yes M, it’s you) once asked whether all Malaysian girls eat like me because if they do, he must be careful to stay away from them or risk spending all his money feeding his future girlfriend with food. 

And, of course, I said thank you.

Before I wrap up this entry, I need to tell some of you who love sushi and are travelling to Taiwan to please try Sushi Express (争鲜). It’s addictive. It works like Yo Sushi! here in England and it’s a thousand if not a million times better. All types of sushi are priced at NT$30 per plate (which is like RM3 or £0.60!) and the ingredients used are really fresh. I am not sure if its quality is the same over at branches in Singapore, Hong Kong, Mainland China, USA etc, but at home in Taiwan, sushi at Sushi Express tasted amazing.

So that’s all for today. Have a good weekend!

With love x