on their own

Oh, food!

a restaurant I visited with décor from the 50s

What is it about the food in Taiwan that draws me back year after year?  That it's incredibly good?  Amazingly inexpensive?  Practically everywhere?

In the States, when one desires to eat out, one makes a decision on which restaurant to dine at then makes one's way there.  Sometimes one thinks about restaurant A, decides to go there, and, while driving to restaurant A, thinks about restaurant B and changes one's mind.  Then on the way to restaurant B, one remembers the delicious pancakes at restaurant C and the unique French toast at restaurant D, and one resents being born a Libra.

without the iPhone in my cousin's hands, this could have been taken 50 years ago

No such process is necessary in Taipei.  Here, you simply walk outside your front door, look left and right, and become overwhelmed with the countless dining facilities available.  On a busier street, you can encounter a food vendor every twenty steps you take.  In addition to established restaurants, you have small food stands selling mostly rice and noodle dishes - tiny establishment with no more than 10-20 seats, each privately owned by the cook who is busy preparing food at the entrance, greeting customers as they walk buy, taking their orders, and collecting money all at the same time.

restroom reading: before 40, we destroy our bodies; after 40, we are destroyed by them

I deduce that this wonderful Taiwanese phenomenon is the result of people with less education finding their own way to survive while providing an essential product and service to the mass.  Think of it this way, perhaps if there weren't fast food restaurants in the States, all those burger flippers and fry fryers may need to rely on their resources and skills to make a living, and what could have happened may be an increase in entrepreneurship, greater responsibility, and development of specific skills.  These folks in Taiwan depend on nothing but the quality of their food to survive, which translates to a succulent feast for the taste bud.

For someone like me who is cursed with the typical Libran indecisiveness, life is miserable having to decide which place to eat, which dish to order.  Did I say inexpensive?  I could have a noodle dish here, a rice dish two doors down, and a dessert across the street - all for under $200 NTD ($6-7 USD)!

colorful front of the restaurant

Now that is good eats!