I never have been much of a foodie. In fact, upon a little introspection, I think I may even be one of those slightly annoying people that actually takes pride in their unrefined pallet. Everyone knows someone like this, right? They don’t “need” to eat good food. They’re content with just eating whatever happens to be the perfect blend of convenient and healthy. They might even scoff at the suggestion of going to a nicer place for dinner and counter-suggest the same place down the street that they go to 5 times a week. When trying to make plans on a Saturday night, this person always has the potential to be a major buzzkill. Unfortunately, I think that to my friends back home, I am, in fact, usually this buzzkill.
After my first few weeks in Taiwan – much to the joy of my loved ones far, far away – I think I’m finally rounding a corner. Every night I eat something different at somewhere different. I’ve noticed that I’ve started to get into the habit that after yet another consecutive meal that I crown “the best meal I’ve had in a while,” I turn to my friends and ask “how does this place have so many good restaurants?” This is a question I still have yet to find the answer to. Holes in the wall charging 110 kuai for a bowl of 牛肉面seem to far exceed restaurants that I have to make a reservation for a week in advance back home.
Night in and night out I am ushered into an airconditioned back room with maybe only one or two other patrons and handed a paper menu inked with traditional Chinese characters that are getting easier to recognize by the day. Often times there’s a lone child (always the cutest child I’ve ever seen) sitting in the corner doing homework or watching a show. I like to try to and give them a wave. They usually wave back. The food always comes out quick. I eat fast and my friends eat slow. We laugh a lot, more than people normally do who have only known each other for a few weeks. Sometimes I think we laugh a little too much and a little too loud for the small dining rooms we frequent, but I can think of far worse faults in a group of friends.
Some days here are hard. I often think of my friends back home. Krusang’s birthday was yesterday and I couldn’t be there with him. I miss my mom and dad, and I find my deepest joy in their voices every weekend over the FaceTime Audio. But at dinner, these thoughts, these worries, the stresses of school – no matter how immense – without exception, melt away. Food, and the experience of eating new food with new friends, reminds me why I came here this summer. It embodies the reasons I made this choice I did not have to make. New experiences, new friends, new language, and the greater understanding of a culture so beautiful and intricate that I could never fully grasp in a book or in an American classroom. To me, this is what food here has come to mean.
I don’t know what I’m going to do in a few weeks when I start cooking chicken and rice again. Maybe I’ll switch it up and make 猪肉贩instead.
by Will Lewis
Dan E. Davidson Fellowship Recipient
Taiwan Intensive Summer and Semester Language Program (TISLP)
Tamkang University (TKU)
New Taipei City, Taiwan, Summer 2025