TAIWANESE CHEERING FOR CHEESE YI-WEN HUANG
What’s going on? This never happened when I was in Taiwan where I was born and grew up My entire life there Now when I watch Taiwanese programs on my android box I see Taiwanese Add cheese to traditional egg pancakes for breakfast Add cheese to Japanese Ramen Add cheese to Korean rice cake, hotpot, or Shin Ramen Add cheese to Italian spaghetti Anna, French, rolling her eyes, melted two pieces of white American cheese, unwrapped by the male host, on top of undercooked bacon on top of a Cong You Bing, a green onion pancake. Once the cheese melted, she added 2 slices of tomato and folded it over, like a calzone, The audience of WTO Sister Association, loudly applauded, chanting, “Success!” Taiwanese cheering for cheese Taiwanese YouTubers, Alisasa and A Yuan, cheered, eating cheese with Korean rice cake, fish cake, and fried chicken! “Mmmmm, super delicious!” said A Yuan Alisasa nodded, her mouth full of cheese Costco might be the reason Taiwanese have access to cheese maybe Carrefour When I was in Taiwan before I came to America cheese was never available or even heard of There was no place to buy cheese—not even in big supermarkets I had only eaten a few kinds of cheese-related foods pizza in a fancy restaurant residing in a luxury hotel when I was a child or teenager or McDonald’s hamburgers or Wendy’s spaghetti or baked potatoes with a few threads of cheese on top Nowadays Taiwan has changed Even the traditional Taiwanese foods such as scallion egg pancakes have been changed by adding a piece of cheese inside They have even been adding a few pieces of cheese into their instant noodles or Ramen Some are adding Taiwanese oyster omelet as a pizza topping stacked on top of the cheese I find this highly unusual But, I’m old school
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