Now I am back in Canada and I had two Chinese people live with me. I can’t believe how they eat and cook with oil. I believe they are drinking some herbal stuff or something to stay thin. I run 4 times a week and walk everyday with my dog. My chinese student eats twice as much as me and then she doesn’t even exercise.

Where is the justice.

The problem with BMI, is that it treats muscle and fat as identical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bmi30chart.png

#1 Taiwanese food is unhealthy - sure, it is if you eat out all the time. But isn’t that the case everywhere? The great thing with Taiwanese hawker stalls is that, you can request for less oil and more vegies - if that’s your thing.

#2 How do Taiwanese stay slim - by eating substantially smaller portions! I guess also, the humidity tends to affect the appetite. Also, a lot more people WALK about, than depend exclusively on cars. I mean, take my Mum, she’d walk for 30 minutes to get the groceries, just because it’s good exercise.

#3 Mayo in o-nigiri - that’s definitely a bad habit imported directly from Japan. The Japanese put mayo on practically everything!

I guess stereotypes are inevitable. But if we discount the stereotypical (and clearly incorrect) view that all Americans eat KFC/McDonald’s etc., we’d still be left with the fact that Americans on average, are the fattest people on earth (Germany and Australia, are equal second). So it is probably still due to (bad) eating habits, just not the same ones. =D

If you crave cleaner, healthier food, head for one of the very many vegetarian restaurants, usually buffets, all over Taipei.

Unfortunately, for me, that’s an hour trip each way. There’s a buffet here, but even the veggies are litereally soaking in grease.

I’m curious to know what you mean by “actual” Taiwanese food, though. The first thing that came to my mind were danzaimian, elazen, and all the seafood. I did used to enjoy the seafood night market near shuanglian zhan. A fish a crab, plus some uh… “A” vegetable, was a pretty good meal. Oh, how I wish this town had a nightmarket I could go to right now!

I think I know the secret to why everyone here is skinny, though. They just don’t eat so damned much as Americans (or even Taibeiers) do.

As for inauthenticity, I’m working at a supposedly “spanish” restaurant that serves caesar salad with iceberg lettuce, onions, bean sprouts, red and green peppers and this gross dressing that’s basically a very vinigary vinaigrette with chopped capers and anchovies. When I tried to convinced the management of the error of their ways though, they told me with a straight face that this is how the customers liked it. Call it Caesar Salad with Taiwanese Characteristics, I suppose.

If you crave cleaner, healthier food, head for one of the very many vegetarian restaurants, usually buffets, all over Taipei. I’m a proud omnivore, but I just went to one the other day and was just bowled over by the variety of textures and flavors on display. It’s as if they are determined to show people how varied and tasty vegetarian dishes can be. Alternatively, try actual Taiwanese cuisine — it’s actually pretty light (with the exception of a few deep-fried dishes) compared to the other foods served in Taiwan. It’s eaten with rice porridge rather than solid rice and best washed down with Taiwan beer.

I think the analogy holds pretty well. In China, you can get a certain subsection of American foods along with a bunch of weird stuff that we don’t really consider American, and in the US you can get a certain subsection of Chinese foods, along with a bunch of stuff they don’t consider Chinese. I’ve even gotten Taiwanese food in the US before, though I admit it’s not that easy to find.

Couple of points in your post that are uninformed:

1) Chinese food in the US is really American Chinese food, some of which is based on stuff railroad workers ate. One famous example of this is when Yao Ming says he doesn’t really know why they gave out free fortune cookies at a Rocket’s game–because it’s peculiar only to the US. Also, Chinese restaurants are mainly run by Cantonese, thereby making it substantially different in style from Taiwanese food.

Your analogy doesn’t work. There are authentic Western restaurants in Taiwan, but very few Taiwanese style restaurants in the US. Have you ever eaten Kung-pao chicken in Taiwan? I haven’t even seen it. Fried chicken IS found on both sides of the lake.

I would actually argue instead that most restaurants in Taiwan, regardless of style, are very unhealthy. The healthy stuff you’d have to purposely order weird or go to a health foods restaurant or plain eat less.

2) You have never seen someone with an athletic physique outside of Taipei? Are you kidding me? I totally agree it’s much less than in the US and there is definitely not the same US culture of sports and weight lifting, but what? Never? How often do you get out? Especially if you’re talking about people under 30.

If you’re overweight, I’d consider looking into seeing what cutting down MSG (or doing the best you can to eliminate it) could do for you.

I’m not sure about American food in Mexico, but I think it’s mostly fast food?

I do see a lot of Japanese junk food and very little healthy stuff make its way to Taiwan, though. Did you know that they add mayo to the Japanese seeweed&rice wraps, here? Taiwanese people also have a stomach for all the “Japanese bread”.

P.S. How about Mexican food in the US vs Mexico? Or “American food”, whatever they mean by that, in Mexico? Does they follow the Chinese-US trend or the Japan-US one?