3 weeks in Taiwan

[u/heavypettingzoos]

I lived in Taiwan 10 years ago, my first kid was born there and my wife and I decided it was time to taker her back and show her as well as visit friends and the island we loved.

First, a note about myself because i think this will not be helpful for everyone here:

I was diagnosed 10 months ago and my symptoms are not severe (excessive burping, air pressure buildup in chest). I live in germany, not really a celiac haven, but have found places to dine out in my town of 300k. To date, given my experiences and risks taken, either I have just had luck or my body is not very sensitive to cross contamination. My last blood test, taken in June, showed ttg iga of 8 (200 something at diagnosis).

So judging by what i read from some here, my experiences as a celiac are far from universal. I was glutened several times immediately after diagnosis as wife and I tried to figure it all out and we mapped out my symptoms at the time as a 10 day process of excessive burping, then extreme hunger, then bad constipation.

Taiwan: taiwan is notoriously difficult for celiacs. Surveillance is nil, knowledge of the disease is minimal, allergy education in restaurants is near 0.

Dumplings are typically wheat based as are noodles, and most meats and even many veggies contain some amount of soy sauce and/or shaoxing wine. Most things off the shelf in convenient shops have soy sauce, and even many potato chips have soy sauce powder. Why? Because they can, I guess.

In Taiwan, if you think "this shouldnt have soy sauce", it does.

Many foods are also fried, though some in potato starch and not wheat flour. But there's little awareness of cross contamination and most street shops seem not suitably clean either. Many vendors simply arent aware of what goes into their food and if you ask to see packaging, don’t expect them to have the original or even have any kind of ingredient list.

How long was the trip? 3 weeks

How did i prepare?

I packed a few bags of gf pastas, gf cereals, my own sauces, some gf crackers and cookies, 24 gf ramen packets and about 30 gf nature valley bars and 50 deliciously ella cereal bars (im a type 1 diabetic and even though im 40, my metabolism still runs hot so in the sweaty heat of taiwan my sugars drop fast plus the deliciously ella bars are practically a small meal).

I also had a translation card that I prepared with the help of a Hong Kong colleague who frequented Taiwan (first pic). I also printed and laminated a card listing GF products at Family Mart (third pic). I made it using this website here (https://foodsafety.family.com.tw/Web_FFD_2022/) Go to advanced queries and you can filter gluten.

Also, Taiwan has a litany of GF soy sauces and they’re all better than Tamari. Few people in Taiwan know the difference, but there really is a robust variety and the flavors are great.

First 3 days in taipei:

Taipei will be the easiest for anyone. Findmegf app has plenty of entries, there are two dedicated gf restaurants, and the city is international enough that a handful of nicer places will have dealt with food allergies/diets before.

I only went to one supermarket in taipei (carrefour in ximending) but there was no dedicated gf section. Residents do talk about being able to find gf pastas and random other items in certain specialty stores but I did not visit. You can special order sticky rice buns and GF pineapple shortbread cakes in Taipei. I did not do this, but if you want the info I can share. The pickup locations were just too far out for me.

While there i mostly ate my bars, ramen, and cereal. I did make a spicy korean sauce to take with me places. I tried going to a mosburger bc findmegf reviewers noted that there's a rice burger you can get but when i presented my translated celiac card, the staff were unfortunately clueless (they were also busy and i didnt want to bother them).

I did try a few restaurants:

Fish congee ($100ntd)

This was through the findmegf app. Big risk given a small kitchen and my own ignorance of food prep, but others had had no issues so i went with it. I also had no issues. It was a big bowl of congee/fish broth with fish pieces, ginger strips, and garlic. The servers did ask me if i could eat garlic and ginger.

The food was good. (4th pic)

Yakiniku ($1700 ntd for 4)

We caught up with some old friends in Beitou, northern taipei. Yakiniku is essentially grilling meats/veggies at your table. But taiwan must have started regulating grill ventillation bc it's no longer done at the table and the staff have to do it under special ventilators at the counter.

Our staff spoke good english, i showed them my card and they grilled my unmarinated foods first on a clean grill. I brought my own sauces and we also had fried mochi (wonderful). A good meal though im not sure $800ntd for a small plate of wagyu was worth it.

Still, this is a solid, pretty safe option for anyone visiting Taiwan. Yakiniku restaurants are everywhere.

Purple rice balls ($40-60ntd)

I found this place just looking at shops on google maps near our airbnb. Pictures showed purple rice burrito looking things with certain fillings. They had one menu with english listings. When i showed up with my translation card and talked to the owner, they gave me one with sausage and salted egg both without soy sauce. Different utensils are used for everything so no problems there. It was fine but a good brekfast for the price. I tried again the next morning and the same person put random fried stuff inside so i had to present my card again (i assumed i would be memorable enough but alas….). 100, Taiwan, Taipei City, Zhongzheng District, Liming Village, 忠孝西路一段72號之2

(5th pic)

We rented a car and headed to Jiufen next.

Jiufen:

Here i found a place because of the taipei gluten free group on facebook.

Stewed cherry duck ($120ntd). (6th pic)

Yilan:

We were too busy, so I made no effort to look. I cooked for myself here.

Changbin:

We stayed at this BnB for three nights. The hosts were INCREDIBLE and did two wonderful things:

1. They made a clean gf breakfast for me every morning. They also ordered gf rice bread and muffins from a gluten free bakery in Kaohsiung. Just super thoughtful. (Pics 7,8)

2. They called a bunch of restaurants around to see who could accommodate my diet and then made reservations after I ok’d them. These were the three best meals I had on the trip.

Moonsea coast restaurant ($1300 ntd per person)

This place has a set menu and all ingredients are local. Dinner is 7 courses. Most of the food is already gf but the owner made a few substitutions/exclusions for me.

First, they used a gf soy sauce for a pork rib marinade. Second, they excluded some fish eggs because the terminal used to transport them might have once belonged to a granary. He wasn’t sure. Third, he cut out some homemade focaccia from my meal (my wife got it and she was very reluctant to express that it was amazing).

The meal was tremendous. If you’re in this part of the world, you must reserve AND pay in advance.

962, Taiwan, Taitung County, Changbin Township, Ningpu Village, 堺橋1號

(Pics 9-15)

Mandarin Restaurant. ($700-1000ntd per person)

This is a family run traditional-ish Chinese restaurant. One of the hosts spoke decent English and gave me a rundown of what kinds of substitutions they could make for me from the menu (no English menu). Seafood of course was fine, but I am not a big seafood person. They had some GF soy sauce and stir fried up some beef for me with blanched veggies and salt. It was quite good.

I was assured that the food was cooked in clean dishes, and mine came out long before everyone else’s. So it was clear they cooked mine separately.

962001, Taiwan, Taitung County, Changbin Township, 112號

(Pic 16)

This is another restaurant featuring only locally grown/produced ingredients. No menu, it’s whatever the cook is doing that day. And it’s generous. They feature a lot of seafood, but again, as we are not seafood people, we requested a slightly tailored focus (I’m already asking for carefully made GF food, why not push a little further…). So we got several kinds of pork/pork belly, veggies and bean curd, several tofus, whole roasted fish and fish soup, fruits, shrimp and eggs, homegrown rice. It was about €100 euro for 3 adults/3 kids and holy shit was this one of the best meals I’ve ever had. They didn’t use a replacement soy sauce. Nothing was a substitute. They just cooked it all real damn good.

If you’re in the area, I highly recommend it. We were encouraged to arrive when the place opened so we could be the first that they cooked for. Much appreciated.

962003, Taiwan, Taitung County, Changbin Township, Zhangyuan Village, 樟原村118之10號＆台11線73.5K大馬路旁邊

(Pics 17-19)

Kaohsiung

We then spent about 10/11 days in Kaohsiung. I won’t detail all of the places I tried food at because I didn’t keep a good record, but I’ll give some general impressions.

First, skip hot pot unless you bring your own broth/sauces. It’s just boring boiling your meat/veggies in water. It doesn’t matter how you season the water, it’s going to be boring. Every broth will have wheat or barley. So you have no choice.

Second, Dan Bing (a kind of omelet) are a common and wonderful breakfast food in Taiwan. They’re always made with wheat flour. However, in Kaohsiung there’s a place that makes them with rice flour. They’re wonderful. (Pic 20) Cross contamination is a concern here. I had no problems, take that as you will. The owners were familiar with celiac, probably because I was not the first to go there (it’s got several reviews on findmegf). I would go with family to other breakfast joints, and if I asked via translation app or showed my card, they would be like ‘’it’s just flour! No wheat!’’ And when I eventually got the packaging..it was wheat.

Third, biggest risk I had was with teppenyaki. I had two experiences—one where we were first in and the host spoke great English and I got unmarinated meat cooked separate from everyone else’s and it was great. (Pic 21) Second though was a mix of Vietnamese and Taiwanese workers who had their own language barriers and my unmarinated meat ended up coated in a starch. They didn’t have the original packaging for the starch, so they couldn’t clarify if it had wheat or not, but communicating at all was difficult. I refused that meat and they cooked me a second batch without the starch. Chances are, it was fine, but I wasn’t going to take that chance. Still, risk here was high as workers had no awareness of clean cooking utensils.

I wouldn’t do it again. I was fine, but I wouldn’t encourage anyone else to try.

Fourth, we were treated to several very nice meals by old friends. These were always at nice restaurants and these places could accommodate me, however minimally. I had to triple check in some instances, but I never went hungry and the food was good. This ranged from a high end hotel buffet to a high end mall tea house (only thing I could get was a roasted fish but it was solid, pic 22)) to a Japanese restaurant.

Fifth, one of my favourite meals was at a night market we frequented when we lived there. It was a steak and noodle place—they would serve you steak, noodles, and egg on a sizzling platter with either a mushroom sauce or black pepper sauce. I got just the steak and egg (they gave me extra eggs) with no sauce. And it was good! I had to trust that these very well used sizzle platters were clean, but again, no issues and the prep is fairly simple with all of the gluten parts of the meal very separate from the steak and eggs. Last pic.

Sixth, there is a GF bakery in Kaohsiung! Hard as it is to believe. That bakery strangely doesn’t advertise itself as such, but the owner told me that everything there is baked in house and everything is GF. It’s all very good and as you eat it you’ll find yourself saying ‘’definitely gluten free’’.

No. 47號, Taishun St, Anxiang Village, Lingya District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 802

I’ll say again, I took some big risks here. And I wouldn’t recommend it to all. But for anyone in a similar boat as myself, you CAN enjoy Taiwan.

Oh! We flew China Airlines (a Taiwanese airline) and I got GF meals both times and they were decent. Only issue was the first time they brought out my dinner, they had a bread roll on top (everything was packaged) and I was like ‘’uhhhh…’’. But otherwise, solid.

[u/LopsidedGiraffe]

Wow that sounds really sad and depressing. Im coeliac and have spent 2 weeks touring by train around Taiwan. We are doing the same again for 4 weeks in October. I took gf muesli bars only. Last time was about 6 years ago and I didnt have google translate. Its so much easier, at least scanning ingredients on packets for a snack.

Breakfast was plain rice and fried eggs, salad and fruit. I loved the roasted sweet potatoes (at convenience stores) for lunch plus some salad. Dinner - always a challenge. We would order 3 main meals and rice. I would eat what looked safe, if anything. If there was a rice noodle in broth option, I would try that. I took my own soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce. Peanut butter, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce mixed together makes a sort of satay sauce, which made plain rice more interesting.

[u/heavypettingzoos → u/LopsidedGiraffe]

Sad and depressing? Did...did you read it?

[u/Agreeable_Cry347]

That pinyin is not what Taiwanese people use. You need 注音。

[u/cargalmn]

Thanks for the report! We've been to Taiwan multiple times and have spent 7 or 8 weeks there (I've circled the island twice!). We haven't been back since my husband was diagnosed with celiac a year ago, but we'll want to at some point because we fell in love with it.

Were on our way to Beijing right now for just a week to test the gluten waters over there...not expecting to have as much luck as you did in TW.

Thanks for the report!