It's always amusing to see just how different tastes are between Taiwanese and westerners. Seeing some kid happily snacking on a bag of dried fish as if he were a kid back home happily enjoying some candy, always makes me wonder if I grew up in Taiwan would i enjoy these...different types of treats.
As...creepy, as some of these treats can be (i'll try to get some photos of the more extreme things) there is one common sweet treat that sends shivers down my spine. The offender? Beans. Unlike the majority of the world where beans are considered a salty food to be eaten as a side dish with your meal, in Taiwan beans are considered a sweet food. Mostly they are put into various breads, pastries, cakes, cookies, etc and eaten as a dessert.
The thing is though, it IS salty. To Taiwanese it tastes sweet, but to me it tastes salty. And this isn't just because i know what it is. I used to think that it's only because i know it's beans, so my mind would just tell me it's salty. So i went ahead and did a blind taste test using a variety of similar fillings, and the beans still taste salty.
Then again, this salty food could probably be what is considered sweet in Taiwan. Because many truly sweet foods are considered "too sweet" by Taiwanese. To which I always reply that dessert should be sweet. But that's ok, if anything this pushes me to make more and more Japanese friends here in Taiwan. As Japanese seem to appreciate the joys of sweet desserts. In fact with Japanese friends I will usually go to a restaurant and just order all the desserts and share. On top of which I get to practice the tiny bit of Japanese I've picked up from years of video games and cartoons. Although it's hard to fit in "monster attack" into an everyday conversation.
