Fruit and vegetables: subjectively, seem to be about 10% more expensive.
Yoghurt drinks: up 20%.
Bus travel: From $15, to $18 - and given the hassle of carrying lots of $1 coins, that’s arguably an increase to $20! That’s 33%!
Baked items: Noticably more pricey, around 10%.
Electricity bill: Through the roof (even though the electricity has been turned off!).

So far, I’ve only been in a couple of small shops - and I am not looking forward to my weekly spend at the supermarket if this pattern of price increases holds up. Thankfully, my rent has stayed the same this year, which is nice as it represents a big part of my spending.

Of course, economists might look at this and scoff - what about the many items that didn’t go up in price, which I didn’t mention - cans of ‘Vitali’, for example? What about the expensive items that take up a lot of people’s money, like flat-screen TVs, that usually go down in price over time?

The first point would be fair - we tend to notice changes more than things staying the same, and it is easy to build a skewed view of reality for this reason. But in regard to the second point: well, I wouldn’t really care if cars or flat-screen TVs came down 10% in price in the last 2 weeks - and I doubt very much that they did. Generally, I don’t make many discretionary purchases*, so my ‘personal price inflation’ is probably more like that of a old person - just the basics, thanks!

It seems though that on this occasion, the economists would probably agree that a bit of slightly higher inflation is appearing. The Taipei Times reported today that inflation jumped this month.

And from the China Post:

And that’s just in one month! Some of the other measures of inflation show it to be rocketing up fast for manufacturers as well as consumers:

Scary. Typical bank interest rates at around 2-2.5%; broad annual inflation** at up to 6.25%, and with a 1-month jump of anything up to 5% depending on what you’re buying. Watch your spending carefully, because there’s a very real chance your wage rise this year won’t come close to covering the increase in the cost of living.

Links: Michael Turton has recently written about Taiwanese food prices, here.

* discretionary purchase = ‘things you want / things you choose to buy’.
* non-discretionary purchase = ‘things you need / things you have no choice about buying’.
** I recommend being a bit wary of all government inflation figures - not just Taiwan’s! I believe they will be understated by their design, since it is in most government’s interests to report low inflation rather than high inflation. I instead suggest estimating your own personal inflation using a standardised ’shopping basket’.

Welcome to Taro-Town!

At the market, you can buy all sorts of strange things to eat…

…but my favourite had to be dried out chameleons stuck together with rubber bands.

Angela, Erich and myself enjoy the crunchy texture of deep fried insects on sticks.

It’s the Year of the Pig!

If you felt like eating Mexican food, Taipei might perhaps not be the first place in the world you’d pick to dine. And rightly so, this meal would unfortunately seem to indicate - the food in Tequila Sunrise felt a bit flat, greasy and uninspiring, and they kept forgetting to bring items that were listed on the menu (yummy, dips with salsa and guacamole and sour cream… only… where is the guacamole and the sour cream???). It took quite a few attempts to persuade them to bring the stuff we’d ordered. Thankfully, a chance to spend some time with my friends more than made up for the not-quite-up-to-par quality of the food that was served.

Annie, Daisy and some reasonably tasty enchiladas.

I particularly recommend against the ‘bargain’ tea+soup+salad deal offered with the main courses for an extra $80 TWD. The soup was ‘Lumpy cream of mushroom, ala floaty things’ - a true Mexican classic, mes amigos! Salad was limp lettuce covered in artery-bursting pink sauce stuff (though to their credit, they did swap it out for a dying lettuce covered in an olive oil vinegarette for me, hurray! :) ).

It tastes as good as it looks.

The worst thing on the menu has to be the ‘crazy chicken’. It’s a pretty dried out chicken - and a damned expensive one at that. Sure, there is a little bit of salsa and a few sad-looking slices of jalapenos that were almost literally screaming out “kill me, end the misery” - but basically, it’s a not-very-tasty chicken. Worse still, it appears this particular chicken may have died from malnutrition long before it reached the kitchen. I decided to make the best I could of it. My friend’s enchiladas were pretty tasty, but a little greasy, and thankfully they shared them with me.

Ambience: The background music was suitably atmospheric, and the walls looked kind of nice particularly as you follow a long and winding path to reach your table - but then you sit down at the table and find it rocks around like Axl Rose on a particularly rockin’ day, while you’re trying to eat your munchies.

Mexican food is not traditionally served on a bouncy castle simulator, to the best of my knowledge. I checked a couple of other nearby tables, and yup, they’re all about as stable as Margaret Thatcher.

Summary: Not a fantastic place to eat; price wasn’t too horrific, but the food and even the tables were definitely not up to par! I’d give it just 4 Speedy Gonzales out of 10 - for the Enchilada, wall decor and olive-oil swapout service, combined with a decent salsa.

Here’s the name. Just look for the christmas tree lights and you’ll be fine.

After a few weeks of trying to find some free time, I went there again with my friends and had yet another stunning meal - 3 people, 7 or 8 dishes, and drinks all came to $1000TWD in total.

Pete wonders if they are open yet…

They have the entire menu translated into English, and they have a good range of different types of food including several types of salad and fish dishes (if you’re vegetarian/vegan). Decor and music are… well they’re not quite as good as the food, let’s put it that way. Bring earplugs.

Lemon Fish (li mon yu) - $200TWD. So good I literally ate it twice, to the disbelief of the staff.
In my books, two fish for $400TWD is a bargain.

Tom ka gai soup (chicken/not spicy). $150TWD for a giant bowl. Spicy salad $80TWD.
My advice? Mix some tom ka gai with the sauce from the lemon fish.

“We highly commend the tasty food of Random Thai Place.”, say Pete and Angela.

After dinner, you can gaze in awe at the all-powerful Benq sign.

Taoyuan’s factories are often staffed by (low paid) foreign workers - a topic which very easily stimulates discussion when presented to locals, irrespective of their own nationality. However, economic disparities aside, this influx of foreign staff represents a boon to the palates of students travelling between the city centre and university. By visiting the restaurants in the industrial areas, you are almost guaranteed to get food that is:

a) cheap
b) completely authentic

and only very slightly

c) contaminated by heavy metals.

The area midway between the city centre and Guishan seems to be predominantly Thai. This isn’t surprising - Taoyuan is the most ‘Thai’ city in Taiwan, with over 30,000 Thais among the 70,000 registered foreign workers in the city. There is another area of foreign worker’s restaurants that can be more easily found, by taking the underpass beneath Taoyuan railway station and look around. The area near the railway station seems to be predominantly Indonesian and Vietnamese, though a few Thai restaurants such as ‘Suwadee’ can be found. (…however, Sudawee wasn’t very good the last time I ate there…)

If you’re interested in trying some authentic food from the Thai restaurants near the Guishan area, here is what I recommend you do. Go to the Tonlin department store (near the train station - ask the first person you meet to point you towards ‘Tonlin’). Around the side, near some small food stalls, the number 7 bus departs. Step onboard, pay $15 TWD, wait 10-15 minutes, and you will drive past a big building with a “BENQ” sign outside. Step off the bus (there are two stops within 200 metres), and you will find yourself in a little street with at least 5 different thai restaurants.

My favourite restaurant is the one nearest to the Benq building entrance - approximately 50 metres away. The scenery and music really isn’t the best in the world, but the food…. the food is to die for. Truly, the most incredible Thai food I’ve found so far, much better than the other Thai restaurants I’ve found in Taoyuan. Try the lemon fish (lee mon yu), and tom ka gai soup, and mix the sauces together to experience an absolutely divine combination. If you’re feeling brave, they’ll be happy to supply a spicy salad that will take the roof of your mouth off.

Beware though. Many bad experiences that I’ve had in Thai restaurants here stem from the friendly nature of the hosts. If you have white skin, they will avoid putting anything spicy (or indeed, flavoured) into their cooking so as not to surprise you. Insist on getting your food spicy! (”hen la”)

To help your taste buds recover afterwards, a convenient steamed bread stall can also be found near the Benq building, selling a very decent variety of sweet, soft, freshly made bread, for about $12 each. Highly recommended for mopping up the chilli that will now be stuck between your teeth.