Survey on Taiwanese cultural food

Thanks for your reply!!

Thanks for your reply, and to be honest, as a Taiwanese person, I don’t even know what a onion pancake is myself ahaha

Well, I am still going to look for foreigners on the street to ask them the same questions because I’ll need to present a video document of me interviewing too. But these answers will also be very helpful for my project.

To explain further about my project, this is a “personal project”. So basically the student gets to choose the topic on what they are interested in. I chose this topic because I am passionate about it, not really because it’s an assigned task. But thanks a lot for your suggestions anyway :smile:

Thanks a lot for your reply!! I think you have the best reply so far :smile:

Aww it’s too far away from where I live, but I’ll definitely try it when I have the chance to :wink:

Thanks a lot for your reply and the photo too hahaha

If you liked that one, you should have seen the ones that got removed by the mods :smiley:

Sounds like 蔥油餅

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  1. How long have you been in Taiwan? (ex: 2years)

15 years

  1. What kind of food do you think represents Taiwanese culture the best?

I think rice dumplings ( zòngzi 粽子) represent the culture best, because they’re associated with Duanwu (端午節) and its traditions, including the Dragon Boat Races, and because they’re associated with the story of Qu Yuan (屈原).

  1. What Taiwanese food would you like to try?

I’d like to try 割包 (guàbāo). I’ve read about them here on Forumosa, but I’ve never had one.

Also, years ago, one of the convenience stores here occasionally sold a box lunch (便當) that had pig knuckles (燉豬腳?) (or I think it was pig knuckles), shelled boiled peanuts (水煮花生), some kind of greens (水煮芥菜? 醃芥菜?), and rice. But I only saw that box lunch a few times, and then I stopped seeing it. I’d like to “try” that again.

  1. What Taiwanese food wouldn’t you try?

I don’t want to try stinky tofu (chòu dòufu/臭豆腐). I used to think I’d tried it once when I first came here, but now I think that’s a false memory. I must have just tried some unusual kind of tofu, but not the stinky kind. Now that I’ve gotten a good noseful of the stinky kind, I know that kind of tofu is unmistakable. :slight_smile:

  1. Are there any Taiwanese food you would personally like to recommend to other people?

I’d recommend 牛肉麵 (niúròu miàn/beef noodle soup), 牛肉捲餅 (niúròu juàn bǐng/beef wraps?), 胡椒餅 (hújiāo bǐng/pepper buns/black pepper cakes), 鳳梨酥 (fènglí sū/pineapple cakes), 太陽餅 (tàiyáng bǐng/sun cakes), and 麻糬 (mochi).

I can say it, but can’t write it. Sooner or later, I’ll figure that out.

Apparently there’s a place in Taipei that serves something that it calls onion pancakes. You can see that place on Google Maps, linked here (I hope).

That place calls their pancake 蔥抓餅 (cōng zhuā bǐng), which Google Translate translates as congzhi cake. tempogain’s is 蔥油餅 (cōng yóubǐng), which Google Translate translates as scallion pancake. Both names have 蔥, which I guess can be translated as either scallion, shallot, onion, or green onion (or that’s what Google Translate seems to say).

I don’t know whether they’re two different things or the same thing with two different names.

Edited to add: I just took a look at the pics in the Google Maps feature at the link above. They serve different kinds of scallion/green onion pancakes.

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Thanks.

Isn’t one of them all scrunched up, and the other just a cooked pancake?

There is a place in Zhongli, near the train station that serves these ginormous servings. Also, in Neiwan there is/was (been a while) that served something that was more like an onion biscuit than pancake. About the size of a large pizza slice and about as thick as a piece of cornbread. Taste pretty good.

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That sounds delicious. Yeah, the scrunched up ones, I guess they contain egg, meat, or other stuff. Anyway, the ones you mentioned sound tasty.

Lol, I must have hallucinated the durian-flavored one, because I went back and checked, and I don’t see anything like that. I need to get more sleep. :slight_smile: Apologies for the misinformation.

I’m gonna delete my durian foolishness.

Edit: Ah, now I see how I messed up. One of the photograph contributors has the username durianpotato. :oops: That is all.

It’s good and not that rare. Fatty pork… yummy :slight_smile:

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That kind is called 蔥花大餅 or 東北大餅. They are quite tasty, especially when hot.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply

You’re welcome.

How long have you been in Taiwan? (ex: 2years)
Ten years

What kind of food do you think represents Taiwanese culture the best?
I guess basically street food like stinky tofu, pig blood cake (豬血糕), and gua bao (刈包)

What Taiwanese food would you like to try?
I think I’ve tried just about everything I’ve heard of so far. I’ve read that crickets are served as food in some places (aboriginal areas?) so I’d like to try that.

What Taiwanese food wouldn’t you try?
Again, I’ve tried just about everything. So, I’ll list what I absolutely can’t stand, which is pi dan (皮蛋) and anything with blood. I don’t mind the taste of the latter, I just can’t get through it mentally.

Are there any Taiwanese food you would personally like to recommend to other people?
I’d recommend what I really like which, off the top of my head, is gua bao, three cup (三杯) anything, shao xian cao (燒仙草), and fan tuan (飯糰). I really like flat bread with sesame paste (芝麻醬燒餅)

By the way, one Taiwanese dish that I like that surprised me the most is intestine noodles (大腸麵線) because back in the U.S. I never ate internal organs like that. But this dish has become a kind of comfort food for me. Go figure. (And yes, I do like stinky tofu, but it took me eight months living here before I would try it)

Yum!
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