I’m sure there should be an “and” in there.

This is the last food-related post from Taiwan for a while. I don’t want you to think I am obsessed with food.

I say I really will eat anything – the best frogs legs I’ve ever had were in Taipei, as was the best pork intestines and barbecued meat dipped in raw egg, but I have to be pretty drunk in the UK to eat a kebab from a van. This time I was sober and I made the same judgment.

Now I must admit to having a bit of a sweet-tooth, but no sugary confections for me. Give me bitter dark chocolate or rhubarb crumble and custard and I’m happy. I was offered a sweet snack made with rice balls, red berries, a warm brown liquid and ice cubes by a friend of mine and I can honestly say that if she told me it was a savoury snack I would have believed her. On our travels to Lugang, the safest bet for food was at a bakery food stall. I picked out what looked like a sesame-seed covered doughnut and was relieved to find that it contained a ginger-based mixture in the middle. Once again, I couldn’t tell if it was sweet or savoury, but suspect that to the Taiwanese palate it would have been considered a sweet.

Perhaps that’s why you see no obese people in Taiwan.

I could happily eat Chinese food every day of my life. Not the rich, over-coloured stuff that is served up in the UK, but the food that the Taiwanese cook and eat. A typical lunch is taken at a small restaurant where you point at plates of uncooked meat or fish or use a picture menu to make your choice. Five minutes later a simple meat, rice and veg meal with a cup of green tea is presented to you – not much different to the traditional British cafe lunch really.