One of the hardest adjustments for me living in Taiwan, was getting over the fact that there are not big western style ovens. Granted the main reason for my sadness is because of my poor cooking abilities, meaning most things i want to cook require an oven. As such I don't cook much here. They do have large toaster ovens, but still it's not exactly what I need.
Most cooking is done on a stove, basically stir frying in a bunch of oil. Not too hard and I have learned how to cook a few things, and then quickly forgot how to cook them. Mainly because it's so important to choose the right ingredients, and going to a morning market with thousands of the same vegetables and meat, trying to choose the right one is a daunting task.
When it comes to reheating things, most people use their rice cooker/steamer. This impresses me a lot because I still don't really understand all the settings and stuff (they are in chinese) so I kind of have no idea what's going on. Which is a shame because there are quite a few frozen foods that you can get in supermarkets that are precooked and then you heat them up in the steamer and eat. I'd love to be able to enjoy some of these quick and easy foods, but i have no idea how to reheat them in the steamer (even though I have two rice cooker/steamers). These can also be used for cooking food as well, yet this unfortunately is rare. I try to introduce the idea of steaming vegetables, but the normal response i get is "without oil! disgusting!"
There are microwaves, and a lot of people have them, but they aren't really used that much. A bit of a shame since I would kill for all those unhealthy yet quick and easy microwavable foods and meals from back home. I know a few import companies who have tried importing them here over the years, and they didn't sell well.
Pictured above is a package of frozen pork buns. I'd love to say they are mine, but as they require a rice cooker to reheat, i didn't get any, my friend was buying these. Of special note is that since we only had one item, the guy in front of use let us go before him. I almost teared up as this was the first time in eight years that this has happened to me. It meant a lot because I always let people go ahead of me if they only have one or two items. I think it's so important as a foreigner to go out of way to help taiwanese have a good opinion of us. It was nice to finally have the same thing done for me. That guy is going on my wall of Taiwanese heroes.
