Wack Things in Taiwan 2018

7/11 sells stinky hard boiled eggs, but not regular hard boiled eggs. They had regular hard boiled eggs before.

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Sounds like American 7-11’s today. :slight_smile:
The last time I was home, I bought a coffee at a QuikTrip and my hubby said “You won’t like that.” He was right. They have 10 different kinds but none of them fresh or good.

They have the smoked eggs from…some farm (can’t remember the name), I find them delicious but they cost a fortune.
There’s a lady in front of Taipei University of Education who sells many soy products in the morning and she has packs of boiled eggs at 60nt for 10 pieces. When I arrive in Taipei I often to so at Tech Building, so I walk there, grab the eggs, have a few then carry the rest with me.

I remember that!
Like my 3rd friggin day here I was on the way to an early morning 1-on-1 and I stopped in to grab a coffee, 7-11 back home having been, historically, the originator of about 80% of all road coffee (because fuck Tim Horton’s) and when I went to drink it it was like hot frigging shoe polish. Last time I tried that.

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What’s with the stuffed-animal grabbing machines shops popping up all over the place lately? Do they even have business? Never see any people in there in my neighborhood.

According to the source below:

2016 – 920 shops in Taiwan
2017 – 2859
2018/Jan. – 3352

Apparently they can still sell an average of NT$74,000 per month, but down from NT$360,000~410,000 in 2016.

2018年04月18日 18:44 中時電子報 呂承哲 全台吹起一陣夾娃娃機台展店熱潮,近一年來增加了超過千間店面,大街小巷都可見其蹤跡。不過,數據顯示今年1月的銷售額7.4萬元,比起2016年單店平均36至41萬元,落差極大。 據財政部數據顯示,2016年的夾娃娃機店有920間,2017年為2859間,暴增了1939間,年增率達210%,再到2018年1月的3353間,再增加了494間。不過,與2016年之前單店36到41萬元的銷售額,2018年一月單店平均僅剩7.4萬元銷售額。 據《好房網》報導,同樣遍布全台的超商,擁有1萬2557間,2017年展店率僅有2.18%,然而銷售額高達千億元,不能與夾娃娃機店相比。 對於夾娃娃機店出現泡沫化憂慮,德天國際總經理田揚名分析,偏鄉地區仍有生存空間,但都市內的競爭度高,夾娃娃機店得要不斷升級才能生存。
http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20180418004031-260410

Yeah, I’m concerned about how those are popping up everywhere; there’s just something soulless about them, and I’m pretty sure they’re not a good indicator of the economy (says someone who buys from small local shops approximately never!). There’s a discussion of them over here:

Thanks for pointing to that thread. Thought it would have been discussed elsewhere.

Cheap, easy to manage money makers. Don’t need highly trained employees. Easy to move around to new place. Mostly unregulated but that is changing.

really? i was told coffee was brought over in Japanese times, my gf told me her grandparents used to go to cafes, it was the in thing at the time, or something like that.

I wouldn’t say it was the ONLY place you could get a coffee, but the alternatives were fancy sit down coffee shops that wanted like US$3 or more for a cup of drip.

A certain kind of Taiwanese likes to make up stories that portray the period of Japanese occupation as some sort of paradise.

I remember back then there were lots of fancy cafes selling cups of “single origin” coffee for NT$300 plus a pop, and they all tasted like they leaked out of the same carburator.

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Yeah, I think @MikeN1 was meaning that 7-11 was (virtually) the only place where you could get a reasonably priced road coffee, which was definitely the case.

Yep. The only thing missing was cigarette ashes from a middle-aged waitress wearing too much make-up.

Calling you “hon”.

which part is made up? and i can’t blame the guy from preferring going out for a cup of coffee than going to jail(what happened to him after kmt arrived).

Yes. You still have one or two Japanese era cafes in Dadaocheng area. They were the literary elite gets together to discuss art, politics, philosophy and independence issues. Hence, most were banned/otherwise banished after the war.

There is one still there, obviously a shadow of itself. Boheme, Bolero…Something with a b. We wrote an article about it. Also, the History Museum also set an exhibition around coffee a few years ago. I have the pictures. Yes, coffee was around before 711 and it was cultivated in the island. However, I think it could have beenintroduced by the Dutch.

711 made it popular with the masses. Now let’s see who introduced burgers as suitable breakfast meals. McD?

And yes, if you compare Xindian in the Japanese era, with Kyoto like small rivers lined with sakura, instead of sealed off or worse open sewers…

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What about Fong Da coffee over at Ximending?

I hear that one has been around for awhile too. Not so much Japanese era, but…before 7-11 era.

Their coffee is pretty lame, but I like their almond cookies.

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pork rinds are in ever Filipino market