Outside the Taipei Arena there are two chain restaurants that offer the contrasting choice of a healthy Chinese-style meal or Western fast food. Teacher Kuo (郭老師) offers traditional chicken soup dishes cooked with Chinese medicinal herbs, while next door’s McDonald’s has burgers, nuggets and fries.
There is a difference in price, but not that much. Teacher Kuo’s Chinese herb chicken soup arrives with rice or noodles for NT$150. There are other chicken meal variations, such as ginseng, sesame oil or cloud ear fungus, which has medicinal properties. For an extra NT$60 the meal comes with vegetables and a red bean dessert.
As most of us know, a NT$135 McCrispy chicken meal at McD includes a bag of fries and a soft drink. Six chicken nuggets are NT$105. You can supersize your meal for NT$5. If you fancy greens there is a salad option for NT$40.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
As for the meat, the chicken at Teacher Kuo is recognizably part of what used to be a bird. It is served in a clear broth, seasoned with mushrooms and herbs. The spinach side dish has a splash of soy sauce and shredded ginger. Drink options include pearl milk tea (refreshing, but expensive at NT$70) and daisy flower juice.
At McD the chicken is fried and the nuggets are made from comminuted chicken (meat, skin and bone, blended into a paste), with the addition of flavorings, preservatives, sugar, salt, fats, breading, polyphosphates and gums. Nuggets are often made from mechanically recovered meat, which is obtained by pushing carcasses through giant screens.
Teacher Kuo serves up its fare in earthenware bowls and pretty Wedgewood-patterned plates. The approximately 47 million McD meals served every day around the world come in cardboard, paper and polystyrene foam packaging.
As you might expect, on a recent weekday afternoon McD was full of people and just three tables were taken at Teacher Kuo. The Taipei Times did a quick poll to find out why McD’s customers passed on the healthy option to fill up on fast food.
Chanelle Cheng said McD was “tasty, cheap and quick;” while her classmate Jessie Yu said she didn’t need health food and fried dishes suited her as she did not get pimples.
Both restaurants had tables outside, but the service at Teacher Kuo was of a higher standard. The meal took seven minutes to arrive.
For further information visit to www.kuohealth.com.tw.
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