Taiwanese people and bento

I wanted to write this post about a specific bento place that I went to, but realized how stupid the concept was. There's a billion of these places littering the streets of Taipei, so what's the point in writing about a generic no-name place that serves with the same menu as a lot of other places (I'll probably post about a bento box place in the future, so I'm going to make a disclaimer that I fully understand my hypocritical nature)? Anyway, a couple of days before leaving Taiwan, I was wandering around Taipei Main Station and was super hungry. Having spent most of my money on... well, probably something stupid, I just wanted a cheap lunch that wasn't from 7-11. When I saw this giant yellow sign that screamed 50 NT ($1.50) for bento specializing in roast meats. Cheap street meat... basically Taiwanese chicken and rice.



Sorry for the glare on the picture, I just wanted to show how pimp the artwork on their bento boxes are. Not that there's anything wrong with a silver aluminum bowl with a white cardboard top, but that artwork just screams 'classy.' No, seriously though, while it's nothing important, I've noticed that a lot of bento place in Taipei customize their boxes with their own artwork, to the point that I don't actually think they're using templates anymore. Pretty creative if you ask me...



I had a hankering for roast duck. For 50 NT, you get quite a bit of food... a serving of rice covered in 魯汁 (basically soy sauce used for marinating and roasting the meats), a portion of sliced roast meat, and 3 sides (randomly picked on the day as corn, bean sprouts, and vermicelli stir fried with tofu). The meat was clearly glistening of fat, major plus. It was tender, and fell apart upon being prodded with chopsticks. The sauce... was good, thick enough to coat the skin, and just sweet enough to take the edge of the oily skin. The sides were... uh, I don't remember, they're side dishes. All in all, pretty average in the grand spectrum of bento places. Seeing as this is a cookie cutter example of this kind of food in Taiwan, all I have to say is that, NYC would be a better place with fewer Halal carts and more bento places. A boy can dream right?