What is the food from your childhood that you are ALWAYS chasing? The one that you ate that always gave you joy and comfort? That is connected to a core memory you fear you will never get to experience again? Consider this my way of nudging you to plan your travel through memory, story and feelings. This is an Emotional Eating Travel Plan for your next trip to Taiwan.

The term Emotional Eating feels redundant. Eating is inherently Emotional for me. It’s like saying ATM Machine or Chai Tea. The meaning is IN the word. How can anyone NOT eat with emotions?! And I know that the idea of “Emotional Eating” has gotten a bad rap. People use it to imply an unhealthy relationship with food. But not me! We lifelong emotional eaters (which Asian isn’t tbh) must reclaim the term! Eating WITH emotion is the basis of our culture, my family, and how we express ANY sense of emotion with one other!

COMMENT BELOW: HOW DO YOU EMOTIONALLY EAT? WHAT’S THE FOOD THAT ALWAYS HITS YOUR NOSTALGIC HEART?

Why Taiwan? Imagine China and Japan had a baby on a tropical island. (Okay it’s not as simple as that. There’s lot of wildly painful history but you get what I mean). I am seriously biased because Taiwan is where I was born but, objectively, if you want to experience East Asia without the hyper-tourism but is still tourist-friendly? You MUST go to Taiwan. Taiwan is English and queer-friendly (huge pride month in October!), relatively affordable for Westerners, warm and casual, easy to get around and the food…well, it’s got everything. ALSO not to be like that but tons of Tokyo brands and food chains have outposts in Taiwan AND we make really good fresh seafood here — and that includes great Japanese food so like…just go to Taiwan (Don’t you fret. My next post will be about JAPAN! And paid Subscribers will see PART 2s of both with actual map links etc).

As long as I can remember, eating a meal with my family was not a time to share anything real about our personal lives. It was about watching the loud Taiwan news on TV, analyzing the food, and describing in detail what’s good or bad about it. On the rare occasion that the Yang family was eating out, and one of us really liked something we ate, the family (my mom, in particular) would run a reverse engineering focus group so that mom she could make it at home (this was the stone age when we couldn’t just Google that shit). This was one of the ways my mom showed her love for us. Oh, it also helped that the Yang family loved to save money.

Case in point: The Sizzler unlimited soup and salad bar CHEESE TOAST was very popular with the Yang kids. We’d use the coupons from the junk mailer for the all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar and we were FORBIDDEN from ordering a protein OR a drink.

We were fresh off the boat from Taiwan and BARELY had exposure to the concept of cheese. So discovering that level of flavor and CRUST on a piece of white toast was next fucking level.

Here are some of my favorite movies with Emotional Eating at its core. Y’all got any other suggestions?

Jenny’s Note: Hi! It’s been forever. Thank you for rolling with me while I’ve been on my Podcast hiatus! Been in Asia this whole time — doing fertility and health stuff so I’ve been mellow. I’ve banked a lot of videos and stories — ways for us to think deeper, feel more and live better. So stay tuned. And thank you for your continued support — especially to my monthly subscribers!

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: You can access a PART TWO to this post with links to actual spots where I dined — Google Maps etc. This way you don’t need to do all the search terms and hunting yourself. So if you want that and to generally be awesome, become a paid subscriber today!

EMOTIONAL EATING IN TAIWAN

For me the holy trinity of the Taiwanese palette is: TEXTURE: Q - or elasticity. We love a springy dough or noodle. The way mochi bounced back. SUBTLE: NOT TOO SWEET - the ultimate dessert compliment. TASTE: ORIGINAL FLAVOR (YUAN WEI) We love to taste the fresh ingredients we eat.

HERE ARE 7 KEY ITEMS TO TRY IN TAIWAN. Save this post for your next trip to Taiwan. I didn’t get into Oyster Vermicelli (taiwanese: Oh Ah Mee Sua) and Oyster Pancake (taiwanese: Oh Ah Jen) but seek those out too! PAID SUBSCRIBERS: I’ll include a photo and links for these in my part 2 for you.

Get Some Childhood Snacks — and even cooler, updated spins on them. Head to your local Family Mart, Hi-Life or 7-Eleven. Get some of these iconic snacks that got me through sweltering Taipei summers:

* Taiwanese Milk Candy - Sweet and lightly caramel. Melts in your mouth. I liked how each little candy wrapped in wax paper felt like it was sized just for my little hand.

* Taiwanese Dried Fish Snack - Not too chewy with a sweet and salty fishy taste. Super addicting. I associate this snack with my fave young Aunt who passed away when I was little. She gave me the best snacks and always made me feel so loved.

Find some modern and cool spots with a creative spin on nostalgia:

* Weekend Chicken Club’s Peanut Dessert Soup Cocktail - They hard rep Taiwan food culture and identity with delicious fried chicken and creative drinks.

* Convenience Store Taiwanese Milk Candy Ice Cream Waffle - This was fucking delicious.

Get some very local Taiwan classics:

* Braised Pork Belly Rice (Lu Rou Fan, taiwanese: Lo Ba Bung) - Pure fatty, collagen-y, salty sweet bliss. My new fave spot features an egg on top and it’s only 2 bucks USD. And this spot uses local black-haired high quality pigs.

* Beef Noodle Soup (Niu Rou Mian) - Like most of the foods on this list, little noodle shops are everywhere but there are only some that are worth the sodium. You want that tender beef and complex broth, ideally with the added fermented black bean chili sauce. ALSO elite is ordering it with lots of beef tendon. I am forever chasing the euphoria of eating the beef noodle soup from my old Taipei neighborhood. I’d get some coins from mom and walk down to the corner myself. It was an old white haired man, stiring a huge metal pot over an open burner. The chef had probably been feeding that master broth for a few decades. I felt so independent and alive when I got to go and get food by myself. Taiwanese kids are just trusted to do shit like that — even if it means your uncle telling you to go grab a pack of smokes and some beer at the corner store for him. Americans would be like, “But that little girl is just 7 years old!” Not to us. We are child laborers. You better make yourself useful, kid.

* Stewed Peanuts and Sweet Red Beans with Soft Tofu Dessert (Dou Hua) - There is nothing like a soft stewed peanut for a dessert in Taiwan. Americans just don’t get it! And Taiwanese LOVE our soybeans and our tofu products - including tender soft douhua.

Consider this your agenda for how to nostalgia eat your way through Taiwan. Don’t go for the trendy TikTok spots. Those get so busy. Because a comparably tasty dish is available by a local mom and pop just around the corner. If you want my direct Google Maps links to the spots where I got everything AND if you want to support my independent voice — become a PAID SUBSCRIBER! I’m going to post more about my Taiwan AND my JAPAN travels — stuff where viral TikToks leave off. Travel through my perspective as someone who cares about community, culture and heading off the beaten path — coming sooooon.

COMMENT BELOW: HOW DO YOU EMOTIONALLY EAT? WHAT’S THE FOOD THAT ALWAYS HITS YOUR NOSTALGIC HEART?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennyyang.substack.com/subscribe