hahah i’m actually going to do that little death ritual (sticking the chopsticks straight up) to see if my family reacts in any way.
Don’t forget to slurp when eating soup. And when you eat meat / fish with bones stuff the whole lot into your mouth (assuming the pieces are not too big) and then spit out the bones onto the table, that will impress.
And don’t forget, in Taiwan fish heads are a delicacy. YOu’ll have to fight for them at the table. I suggest the chopsticks in the rice move at the begining of dinner to establish your seriousness.
Remember, when eating, if it smells like shit, it probably isn’t, although that may not be true of oh ah mi sua.
HG
Well it sounds like i can eat like i usually eat and won’t be crucified!
I’m so glad i’m not going to somewhere like… France!!! I can’t pull off the whole “eating politely” thing.
Well, you tend to get at least three sets of cuttlery there as well 
Not counting the extra spoons and forks for desert and coffe etc…
The slurping thing and eating with your mouth open thing is normal here, but actually not seen as polite anymore.
A friend of the old handbrake’s ate like an average bacon pig, and I reprimanded her for it. Initially she claimed the face - saving explanation that it was more tasty that way, however I claimed that it took my appetite away. She actually felt bad and apologized.
(I also told her that any handsome western guy would run away if exposed to a front row view of her tonsils and whatever chicken leg she was munching on, however that’s just me).
Mattresses and stuff like that - try Ikea, it’s fairly cheap there, I bought a mattress for the girls for NT1300 or so.
It is very soft.
Yeah, if you are a peasant. 
The more sophisticated way to use the spoon is to dip the large end into the soup and then delicately reverse-tilt it up and pour the soup down your throat through the narrow “handle” part.
Takes alot of skill but when you pull it off people are really impressed with your knowledge of ancient customs.
Wow you have to pour it through the handle! Thats not how people eat anymore right…
My hands are way too shaky to do anything like that 
I have a feeling that someone is taking the piss…
I take my eating habits from the gorgeous xiaojie I saw the other day which having lunch at a restaurant. She looked like she walked straight out of an Asian edition of Cosmo with her bling-bling fashion, prada bag, and copper lame low-cut top. Right until she took her first bite of food. I could see the exact color and texture of her food at every step of mastication, especially when she talked. She was polite enough to put her hand under her chin when she had something to say to her two male companions, though. I swear to God the woman was eating with her mouth open and using her front teeth to chew. I thought she was taking the piss, but she did this for the whole meal and apparently she was coherent enough for her companions to understand her. Unfortunately, I had lost my appetite long before she had finished showing off her half-eaten food.
So the point of my story - you can chew your food with your mouth wide open, but only as long you you’re carrying a designer purse.
[quote=“ImaniOU”]I take my eating habits from the gorgeous xiaojie I saw the other day which having lunch at a restaurant.
I swear to God the woman was eating with her mouth open and using her front teeth to chew.
I thought she was taking the piss, .[/quote]
Actually that’s supposed to be cute. Like a rabbit nibbling on a carrot. It’s to be considered “youthful”.
I knew a girl who did that with fruit all the time and I soon learned it also meant she was horny and ready to go.
So maybe this girl you saw was just trying to get one of those guys interested by being seductive.
Ewww…
I mean, that’s just wrong, how’s that supposed to be a turn-on?
Oh well, each to its own…
My first few months in Taiwan were spent renting with a Taiwanese guy. Now I like a firm bed but calling this thing firm is nowhere near adequate. My roommate comes out with the usual ‘ha ha you stupid foreigners and your wussy soft beds’. I go and try out his bed and it’s soft as a baby’s behind - proof that this is all some kind of conspiracy to give us all bad backs.