Travels in Taiwan - Food

This is one area where language really is a barrier. 

My experience so far is that there is little English spoken, at least a lot less than the guide books would lead you to believe.  Few menus are in English.  In fact, at any eating establishment selling a number of items, there is full page checklist, all in Chinese characters.  Not exactly foreigner friendly.

Some places have an English menu.  Usually this will have pictures.  You can order by pointing. 

Many of the smaller street stalls only sell a few items.  These are usually on display.  A glass steamer full of steamed buns, for example.  Point, indicate how many you want and the merchant will post the price on the register, or use fingers.

Of course, there are stores like the ubiquitous 7-11s, Family Mart, etc., But you wouldn't want to try and live like that for very many days.  Most cities have stores in the Carrefour chain.  You can get anything you want there.

And, if you want to spend more, you could try regular restaurants.  I mostly avoided them.

One food source I did try several times was the night markets.  I first read about them, and then "Waterfront Cities" mentioned them in their episode on Taipei.  These markets seem to have almost everything.  A few of the things I was even able to identify.

I tried a couple of buffet-type places, but they were disappointing.  Items you thought should be hot were actually cold. 

And if you were really desperate, you could always resort to a North American import...