For yesterday's rant I had a picture of a very common type of restaurant in Taiwan. The translation for this type of place would be "roast preserved meat" but more simply I just call it "hong kong food" since this style comes from Hong Kong.
When I first arrived in Taiwan, these type of places were a gift from the heavens. this is because they were always so easy to identify because they have the meat hanging in the window, and easy to order as I could just point to what i wanted. Both great things were perfect for somebody who didn't know any chinese.
The food at these places can either be very good or pretty terrible, it really depends on the quality of the meat they have. As you can see in the window, they usually have duck, chicken, two different kinds of pork, and sausage. Another great thing about these places is that you can mix and match your meats. Most lunch box places only give you one meat, but here you can choose from a combo of the meats. Once you choose, they will take it down and cut it up and put it on a plate with rice and your choice of side dishes. This and soup and a drink all for between 2 to 3 bucks. Can't beat that.
The one in the picture is of "Hong Kong Guy" which was the name I gave to this specific place near my first apartment. The best thing about these places perhaps is that unlike most Taiwanese restaurants, these are open all day long, no break time. This was a great benefit because my schedule had my lunch time around 2pm, so most of the time I had to go visit this guy for lunch. Also he is Cantonese, which actually many of the people who have this kind of place seem to be.
I really respect this guy, because he has the only place in Taipei that I know that hasn't raised the prices. Most places slowly raised their prices over the years, but he never has. Not only that, but during the big economy crash a few years back, he actually lowered his prices for awhile to help out the people. Really great guy. Especially admirable when you consider that Taiwanese really don't like immigrants from other Asian countries.
