Low Cost of Living – Food
As an English teacher in Taiwan, you may or may not be willing to eat the local food. Luckily, you can get both local and foreign style meals for a lot less than many people will pay back home. You can also spend too much on food if you aren’t careful.
Very few Taiwanese families cook at home. The majority of people buy takeaway because it is relatively cheap and most average Taiwanese work long hours. Taiwanese love to eat and you’ll find that no matter where you live there you won’t have too much trouble finding some place to buy food.
Breakfast 30 – 100 NT ($1 – $3 USD)
Fast food Mac Donald style takeaway stores are very popular in Taiwan. They offer wide variety of hamburgers, sandwiches, toasted sandwiches and other fried meals. The prices are relatively cheap and many Taiwanese stop as these stores on their way to work to order breakfast. The downside is that the food you buy isn’t really healthy. It is very greasy and if you prefer to eat healthy then you might want to avoid these stores or just be very selective in what you order.
Lunch 50 – 100 NT ($1.50 – $3 USD)
The most popular style of lunch available in Taiwan is called a lunch box. Lunch boxes usually offer three different kinds of vegetables along with one kind of meat. The most common are chicken, pork and fish lunch boxes. They are very cheap and for most people more than enough to fill you up. Some people may find these lunch boxes a little on the oily side, but there are many different stores with some targeting the health conscious and offer healthier lunch boxes at slightly higher prices.
Dinner 100 – 150 NT ($3 – $5 USD)
Dinner usually costs a little more, but again for most people should be relatively cheap compared to back home. There are a large number of Italian and other restaurants offering “foreign” style meals such as curry and Korean dishes that are both filling and tasty.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Can you speak to buying your own ingredients / learning to cook in Taiwan? Is it actually more expensive to prepare your own food?
@Billy,
It is cheaper, but it really depends on what you compare it against. Chicken or beef will set you back about 80NT for enough to use twice. However, don’t forget that you need to factor in the price of rice and vegetables, or something similar. At they very least I would say cooking a meal at home will cost you around 50NT at the cheapest and up to 100NT at the most. This is about the same price as eating a lunch box meal, but it will be fresher and healthier. Cooking at home is also a lot cheaper than eating at restaurants, where meals usually cost 150NT or higher. Long story made short, cooking at home will save you money.