Taiwan Food Diaries - Quarantine Hotel Edition

qwert_zuiop · October 13, 2020, 1:39am

So I am stuck in quarantine after arriving in Taiwan on Sunday. And what’s something to do while having not much to do all day except work, eat and sleep? Starting a food blog of course, to share some of the culinary experiences of haute cuisine that staying at a quarantine hotel offers! My plan is to share a picture of every meal they serve during my quarantine with you guys.

Maybe it helps someone deciding whether they should spend their quarantine at a hotel - maybe it brings up some interesting discussions about Taiwanese and western food. Or maybe it’s just a quick way for this thread to end up upon many “ignore” lists. Who knows!

So let the fun begin!

Day 0

As I am one of the “lucky ones” to arrive in Taiwan at early morning (6am), I got to enjoy an extra day of quarantine hotel food (they don’t even charge extra for that! Isn’t that awesome?!?).

During checkin, I received concerned looks by the staff asking me if I had ever stayed in Taiwan before because their hotel was serving primarily “Taiwanese dishes” which might not be liked by foreigners.

Breakfast

After the talk given by the staff about “Taiwanese” food, I was caught by surprise by this breakfast: A burger with ham, cheese and egg served with some cold french fries and two chicken nuggets. Oh, and a plain yoghurt.

Lunch

Not sure if it was pork or chicken, but definitely some kind of meat with lots of fat served on top of the rice. Top one one the left tasted fishy.

Dinner

Best meal of the day: Spicy fried pork with some vegetables on the side.

Day 1

So today, quarantine officially started. Got a call by a police officer at about 10am asking me about my health and telling me to stay in my room. Call took less than 1min in total. He spoke good English.

Breakfast

Definitely “more Taiwanese” than yesterday’s breakfast. Fried egg served on top of noodles mixed my mushrooms and beans with some sort of pepper sauce. Served with a “pomelo-jasmine” tea. And Yakult Strawberry.

Lunch

Seafood time! Fish today served with quail eggs, broccoli and a sweet dessert thing.

Dinner

Pork (still with some bones) served together with shrimp and vegetables. Now regretting that I haven’t learned earlier how to correctly peel shrimp…

So much for now - hope you’re already enjoying this thread already and can’t wait for the next update!

Rocket · October 13, 2020, 1:46am

qwert_zuiop · October 13, 2020, 1:50am

Can’t be just me who never orders shrimp in a restaurant out of fear to make a huge mess at the table, right?

But guess that’s one of the skills I should really prioritise to learn now that I am here!

Uncle_Jefferson · October 13, 2020, 9:19am

My condolences on the food being served. Looks barely edible. Sometimes I wish Taiwan was, in fact, Thailand.

rooftopclown · October 13, 2020, 9:25am

Pro tip: McDonald’s delivers in Taiwan.

Dr_Milker · October 13, 2020, 9:28am

Well, at least you won’t starve to death…or will you?

Rocket · October 13, 2020, 9:28am

FIFY

qwert_zuiop · October 13, 2020, 10:28am

Actually, my expectation was even lower after reading about some quarantine hotels online. I’d give most of the food between 2/5 and 3/5 - so still edible, but not really causing too much enjoyment either.

Not worried about that - more worried actually about gaining weight in quarantine because the food is the kind of food that contains lots of calories and fat, but doesn’t really fill you up. Like high-carb diet or something like that…

Want to “save” the deliveries for when I am really fed up with the food - I mean I’m already paying NT$ 2,500 per day for room and food - so I better don’t let it go to waste

Bad thing about delivery is that the hotel will only bring up the food during “meal times”. Which are 9:00am, 1:00pm and 5:30pm

Day 2

Breakfast

That one was just awful
Hadn’t I been so hungry in the morning, I would have just thrown in out.
Sweet pancakes mostly consisting of air, a breakfast sausage, a hard-boiled egg and salad with sweet dressing?!? Come on…
Probably one of the “international breakfasts” they mentioned…

Lunch

Better than breakfast for sure (well, that’s not difficult anyway…), but also rather bland.
Pasta with meatballs, mushrooms, onions and broccoli.

Dinner

Some sort of fish on rice served with tofu, sweet potatoes and some kind of vegetable. Also not really a fan of that one…

Really hope tomorrow will be a better day again regarding the food!

Care package

Oh, and also received my “care package” by the city government today:

Contains some face masks, a digital thermometer, drinks and some snacks.

Firefighter · October 13, 2020, 10:44am

Seems like your care package was better then mine down in Kaohsiung.
Bleach, masks, tissues and soap plus some dry soups!
Maybe we should have a vote on care packages

finley · October 13, 2020, 10:52am

Bloody hell. I’m glad I’m not doing quarantine. Those are some serious bottom-of-the-range bian dangs you’re getting there. I assume they are charging you money for these?

Top tip: FoodPanda. And tell them you’re not going to pay for any more state-sponsored food if they’re bringing you prison-grade shite like that. Taiwan is capable of much, much better.

qwert_zuiop · October 13, 2020, 11:00am

Not state-sponsored. Paying NT$ 2,500 per day out of pocket for hotel and food. To be paid at the time of check-in. They know why…

Yeah. I mean I am hoping to get by at least a couple of days on the food they provide. It’s not like I can get a refund anyway…

And to be honest: I have had worse food outside Taiwan. And every day eating on of these boxes, I think I’ll appreciate the outside food even more once I’m out…

Uncle_Jefferson · October 13, 2020, 11:15am

This thread is proof you need to do Quarantine either in a decent hotel (if you can afford it) or in your own apartment/Airbnb. You can do quarantine anywhere you want in Taiwan. Doesn’t have to be in Taipei. Get creative! After all, the cost of a taxi is capped from TPE or KHH

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/26515031?check_in=2020-11-15&check_out=2020-11-30&source_impression_id=p3_1602587534_2gU4IBl%2Bg4mHfupB.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15195818?check_in=2020-11-15&check_out=2020-11-30&source_impression_id=p3_1602587655_rsURCWinAwbVr32n&translate_ugc=true

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16139673/photos/246777704?check_in=2020-11-15&check_out=2020-11-30&source_impression_id=p3_1602587709_4Igf9bO0UpROWBSC

finley · October 13, 2020, 11:29am

I’m shocked, really. I thought this sort of blatant profiteering was uncommon in Taiwan. Not surprised they made you pay in advance.

I’ve stayed in some really nice hotels in the Taoyuan area for around NT3000, with a good breakfast at least (lunch and dinner obviously being bought elsewhere). I’ll have to come back to Taiwan at some point, so I’ll make sure to inquire about the food quality when I do. Thanks for blogging about this.

qwert_zuiop · October 13, 2020, 11:42am

When I researched quarantine hotels in September, that hotel was 2,000 per day. Then, however, the government subsidy ended and they increased prices (see Quarantine after August? ).
The hotel is in Taoyuan, too (Holiday Inn Express, if you want to avoid it).

I did my booking through Ownrides and actually inquired then about food and asked if it would be “healthy and rich in variety” and they said it would be.

Noticing that quarantine hotels seemed to fill up pretty fast (everything on the Taipei list was already booked out), I decided to go forward with the booking even if prices had increased to 2,500.

Some quarantine hotels even charge like 3,000 or more per night for a windowless room… And still fully booked according to the government website…

I am really not sure if the food quality is just “expected” at that price level for quarantine hotels - or if I actually just had bad luck. I would expect food quality to be better at more expensive hotels - but wasn’t to keen on paying 3,000 or even more per night for the possibility of better food. Could be just as bad as here…

So as I said: My expectations were already pretty low - researching quarantine hotels seemed like they’re a real “seller’s market” right now…

Maybe someone else staying in a quarantine hotel can chime in about a) how much they paid b) if that was before or after September and c) what kind of food they received.

PeteP · October 13, 2020, 7:23pm

Jesus I have this place booked for my quarantine next month, also booked through Ownrides… thanks for sharing I’m glad I found this thread. Time to start looking for another hotel!

bdog · October 14, 2020, 3:24am

So are all the meals served at that delectable biandang lukewarm to cold temperature range?

Looking at the photos reminds me of China Airlines food.

9am for breakfast, that’s just lazy.

Looking forward to the next instalment of this horror show.

qwert_zuiop · October 14, 2020, 5:07am

Wish you good luck! At least Ownrides mentioned that they would do rebooking for free if I remember correctly.

Mhh, temperature is nothing really to complain about as long as you pick up the food immediately after they put it outside. No microwave in the room unfortunately.

Let’s go then:

Day 3

Breakfast

Luckily, I had ordered UberEats in time - so straight to the trash it goes…

Lunch

Haha, just kidding. UberEats again.

Here’s the real one:

bdog · October 14, 2020, 5:13am

If I ate three baozi, turnip cakes and a boiled egg for breakfast I think I would have to go back to sleep.

jo · October 14, 2020, 5:15am

Breakfast will have the egg only would be ok.

Dr_Milker · October 14, 2020, 5:20am

Frack me that’s a lot of starch…