Yes that’s the place! It’s located in the lane running perpendicular to Roosevelt Road, immediately north of Shuiyuan Public Market. It’s about a one minute walk from Gongguan MRT Station Exit 1. Open 8:00 am to 11:00 pm daily—how’s that for hours!
Guy
You had the new expat in Taiwan thread, right? Possibly you have seen several sources online exclaiming that there is excellent and cheap food in Taiwan.
In my experience and opinion, it is much cheaper to eat here than in Canada if you don’t care about eating healthy and delicious food. A dollar a day? No.
Generally, in terms of flavors and textures i find the food here is a huge disappointment. Going to Thai or Indian restaurants isn’t usually much better, because they cater for local tastes and the locals prefer bland or sweet food
If you like soggy hotpot and soggy fried foods, you will enjoy the variety. If eating well is important to you, have you considered Vietnam or Thailand ?
Have you tried the bun thit nuong? The one with the crispy fried spring rolls.
When I first came to Taiwan (at 17 years old with 30,000 dollars), I was so broke that I would eat one pack of instant noodles a day… with perhaps a better 7-Eleven meal once every few days. Did that for a few months until things started getting better, and no long term effects as far as I know. Feel thankful for what I have now… really is hell living like that.
If I had to do it now, I’d probably have braised pork rice as my main sustenance, I don’t know how much they cost now, but I think they were like $30-$40 back then, so roughly 1 US dollar. Great value.
Back in Uni we had a shop that sold food that was about to reach it’s best before date. I lived off of a 25 pack of instant noodles for 5€.
And the exchange rate looks similar for 1988, NT$28.59, but I’m not sure how much buying power that amount would have in Taiwan in 1988.
I used 1988 because apparently Musk turned 17 in 1988.
This approach may not be a valid one, but here goes nothing:
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
According to XE.com, today US$2.48 would be worth NT$73 or NT$74 (at least right now, at 10:22 p.m. in Taiwan).
Speaking of food, I need to go get something to eat.
Not yet. I’m a big fan of bun in summer, just had it today for lunch in fact, though not in Taipei. 
Guy
Yeah, this. If you allow for the fact that the cost of living here has increased about fourfold since then, $4 a day (NT$120) is probably doable. Come to think of it, I probably do that some days: eggs and coffee in the morning and a large bian dang in the evening.
When I was a student I shared a house with three other ratbags. It was basically like The Young Ones. We had a weekend challenge to see who could prepare a meal (for the four of us) for 1 pound each. This usually involved marked-down items from the supermarket. Nobody could cook very well, but it worked out OK.
When I went to school in a small town in the US, my weekly grocery budget was $20, which included toiletries and household items. So my daily budget was less than $3/day. I can confidently say that I ate well and healthy - fresh vegetables from an Asian grocer, chicken leg quarters for $.79/lb ($.29 or $.33/lb when on sale)… Granted I only cooked once a week to save time, so I pretty much ate the same things for a week… My sibling tried to imitate me in a big city but failed, not because of the costs, but because they could not stand eating the same things… I don’t know about $1/day, but $3/day was certainly possible in America in a lower cost-of-living area back then.
Unprepared food is more expensive in Taiwan than in the US (BTW, Elon was in Kingston, Ontario back then, not in the US). Even with rampant inflation, it should not be too hard to only spend US$100/month on groceries where I am. I’d think it’s harder to eat with NT$100/day in Taiwan.
I saw some forum members argued that the cheap prepared food use lower quality ingredients. So not exactly cheaper. Not to mention the health and hygiene problems, like gutter oil, expired items, cockroaches, rats, etc.
Ok the answer is to buy pork or cabbage buns. You can get one for 10 nt. When I first got here I was having serious money issues. This is how I survived. 3 buns a day and free water
If you stick to two meals a day it’s possible. 50nt is enough to get a small meal.
Won’t be too healthy, but it will last you a while
Is there anything this guy does or says that isn’t designed to boost his image/brand? A more shameless self-promoter than PT Barnum. Are hotdogs even popular in 1980s S’Affa? Wouldn’t they prefer biltong or boerewors sausages for that kind of snack?
He only ate meals being hotdogs? 33 cents each if eaten three meals? Bullcrap! But it must have been good for his sperm count, 8 kids is not nothing.
When I first came to Taiwan I had a food budget of $100 a day. It helped that I only ate once a day.
There is something quite hilarious /incredibly annoying about rich people trying to tell “rags to riches” stories and failing epically. Dave Ramsey (“Rich Dad Poor Dad” author) used to talk on his podcast all the freaking time about “coming to LA in the 90’s with only two dollars to my name”. In the three months that I tolerated him long enough to listen to that show, he mentioned it at least twice a show, sometimes more. At one point a guest asked him, with a tone of genuine curiosity, what he ate with only two dollars to his name. All the hype and energy that he’d had in his voice immediately disappeared as he realized that he’d never even considered what $2 can buy (over a period of months!!) and tried to fumble for an answer. He stopped rambling on about that story immediately afterwards.
Even in Taiwan when I could get a subsidized school lunch when I taught in the public school, it was NT$45 or so/meal. And that was not enough food to get me to 2:00, let alone last me the day. And it was subsidized, so it would have been more if I weren’t at a public school.
He didn’t write that, did he?
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Book by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
