The Snake Soup

Food, food, food! There is one country in the World where almost everything is about food! Well probably there are more countries like that but in that one food is almost like deity! TV programs about new, old restaurants or new positions in menu. Scandals about chefs, waiters and clients on the first pages of newspapers. There even the whole conversation starts by small talk about food, last meal or some restaurant at the corner, then comes the time for other topics.

Country, where you can eat almost everything and where people eat all the time and they don’t get fat. Secret ancient recipe? Mysterious ingredients? Or some east meditation techniques and preparation process. If you are food geek looking for new, inspiring taste that is definitely place for you!

I didn’t go there searching for food, different culture, religion or language. No, I went to Taiwan to have a small Alaskan Reunion! You can ask what he is writing about? Alaskan reunion in Taiwan? Yeap, this is how the World looks like nowadays. I improved my English in Spain during Erasmus and I learnt Spanish in Alaska during my work in fish cannery. So why not to have an Alaskan Reunion in Taiwan? J Moreover on Taiwan I met my German friend. Definitely you can say that now the whole World meets in Asia, at least that was my impression!

I spent there just a little more than a week, travelling around the country, wandering in forests, enjoying sandy beaches, drinking beer on the top of skyscrapers with a view on Taipei101 and eating, eating and again eating some amazing food in fancy restaurants hiding from coming typhoon. Yeap, lucky me! First time in Taiwan and already one of the strongest typhoon in the region to encounter. So what to do if all public places are closed, public transport suspended and people hidden inside their houses? Answer is simple and the best you can find: Eat!

What you can get there? Everything! Literally everything. I tried amazing hot pot, stinky or rather very stinky tofu, red beans ice cream, rice in many different options, combinations, forms and colors, many different sweets, crispy squids and at the end: Soup with snake inside!

What’s interesting, when I was sitting inside the restaurant the waiter was shouting to the people on the street: Come! Come! Foreigner is eating a snake! Come, try and take some pictures! So for me that soup from snake was one of the biggest tourist attractions, for them me eating the soup! But that are not all surprises you can get in Asia! 

In Malaysia when you want to try some street food from small local restaurants, you enter inside and take food from open buffet. Then comes the waiter, he looks on your plate and randomly put a price you have to pay. So you never know how much you will pay! In Taiwan is completely opposite. You enter the restaurant, you get menu with all prices but…. all is only in Chinese so you have no idea what kind of food you get! :D Still don’t know which option suits me better. Both of them definitely give you some adrenaline, anxiety and excitement in the same time. Feeling of being surprised everyday = welcome in Asia J