Dining (or not) in Taipei

Aside from the language of course, my biggest challenge (and source of frustration) is not finding the restaurant at which I had planned to eat. You’d think it would be a simple process – but it isn’t. Here’s why . . .

Take 117 SW Baden street as an example of a typical US address. With a street name and a number you can usually pinpoint the restaurant to a single and very specific store front. (The hardest part, if there is one, is finding the road itself.) On occasion, the address gets you to the front on a building but you still need to make your way up to a higher or lower floor. A quick peek at the sign in the lobby and up you go. In no time at all, you are sitting down, napkin in lap, menu in hand, drink on the way.

Here’s an example of a Taipei Address. 13F , No 197, Sec 4, Zhong Xiao East Rd (not always written out in that order. Now cut that address and paste it into a google map and see what happens). Roads can go on and on, so they break them into sections. The section tells you where to look for the specific number. (Be careful, there might be a No 197 in section 1, section 2, section 3 and section 4). So you need to find the road (no easy task when you can’t read Chinese characters), find the right section, find the right number and, once is a while, you are there.

But here’s the catch. You might just be walking up section 4 of Zhong Xiao E Road , salivating as you pass 191, 193, 195, cross a lane and find yourself next to 199. (*^$^&##). 197 is tucked somewhere back up that lane. (Now, lanes here are not the idyllic setting you might find on the English countryside. They are more like the patchwork quilt of shops, pubs and rooming houses in the Harry Potter movies where the wizards buy their accessories – just not as glamorous.) When you walk up the lane (which usually goes on for blocks), it’s crisscrossed by any number of smaller alleys that are lined with 1-3 story buildings (I use that term loosely) each guarded by a battalion of those dam scooters. That restaurant could be in any one of those building on any one of the floors. And the signage is not great. If there is a sign – it’s typically written in Chinese characters which, once again, I don’t read so well. Worse yet – I don’t pronounce the characters so well either. I may be asking for ‘The Delicious Noodle House” and what I say is “Is there a place to eat horse dung around here”.

Too often I’ve trudged back home, gotten out the wedge of cheese and dried apricots I’ve tucked away in the fridge and made a sandwich with a cranberry scone recently purchased from Starbucks.