For Taiwanese, the sandwich is as much the typical breakfast food as traditional steamed mantou (饅頭) or the wide assortment of dumplings and pastries one finds at a Yonghe-style doujiang (永和豆漿) shop. Shops like Mei Er Mei (美而美), the Mom-and-Pop style chain of stop-and-go breakfast stands, have helped popularize sandwiches as the everyman’s first meal of the day, as well as what it calls “hamburgers” and “toast” — all of which have been adapted to local tastes.
The company behind Mei Er Mei, “Good Morning” (早安!美芝城), also runs a newer chain that bridges the gap between the Western and Taiwanese tastes. Also called Good Morning (早安!美芝城), the Tainan-based chain offers healthier, fresher versions of Mei Er Mei’s standard selection of quick-and-fast egg sandwiches and hamburgers (which are actually sandwiches but with a bun instead of sliced bread).
The sandwiches, which Good Morning calls “fresh toast” (現烤土司), are less greasy than what you get at Mei Er Mei or one of its many imitators. Tidbits has been frequenting a branch near Linguang MRT Station, and here are a few favorites.
Photo: David Chen, Taipei Times
The bacon and egg sandwich (NT$35) goes down easy, and its garnishes are more accommodating to Western tastes — the toasted white bread is not too sweet and it comes lightly buttered, a nice change if you’re not into the sweet mayonnaise or margarine that’s standard at breakfast sandwich stands across Taiwan. Good Morning also has a unique sandwich called “Danish Toast” (丹麥土司), which costs between NT$45 and NT$70. Tuna, egg salad, potato salad and bacon and egg are among the choices for filling, but it’s really the bread that’s the main attraction. Imagine the buttery flavor and texture of a croissant in the shape of a regular bread slice, and you have a deluxe breakfast sandwich that beats anything you get at Dante Coffee or Ikari Coffee. And it’s cheap.
Good Morning lives up to the name with decent coffee, also cheap (NT$35 to NT$60) and made from fresh beans. And if you have a hankering for a more traditional breakfast, the danbing (蛋餅, NT$20 to NT$60) — or egg wrapped in a thin tortilla-like wrap — is highly recommended. The wrap is always cooked to a nice crisp on the outside and it’s as good if not better than what you get at a doujiang shop. Same goes for the radish cake (港式羅蔔糕, NT$35). Good Morning’s Web site (macc.com.tw) doesn’t have a list of locations (it’s more of a corporate site), but you can do a search using the Chinese characters and whatever city you’re in. Tidbits favors the branch on 439, Heping E Rd, Sec. 2, Taipei City (台北市和平東路三段439號).
The slashing of the government’s proposed budget by the two China-aligned parties in the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has apparently resulted in blowback from the US. On the recent junket to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, KMT legislators reported that they were confronted by US officials and congressmen angered at the cuts to the defense budget. The United Daily News (UDN), the longtime KMT party paper, now KMT-aligned media, responded to US anger by blaming the foreign media. Its regular column, the Cold Eye Collection (冷眼集), attacked the international media last month in
On a misty evening in August 1990, two men hiking on the moors surrounding Calvine, a pretty hamlet in Perth and Kinross, claimed to have seen a giant diamond-shaped aircraft flying above them. It apparently had no clear means of propulsion and left no smoke plume; it was silent and static, as if frozen in time. Terrified, they hit the ground and scrambled for cover behind a tree. Then a Harrier fighter jet roared into view, circling the diamond as if sizing it up for a scuffle. One of the men snapped a series of photographs just before the bizarre
Power struggles are never pretty. Fortunately, Taiwan is a democracy so there is no blood in the streets, but there are volunteers collecting signatures to recall nearly half of the legislature. With the exceptions of the “September Strife” in 2013 and the Sunflower movement occupation of the Legislative Yuan and the aftermath in 2014, for 16 years the legislative and executive branches of government were relatively at peace because the ruling party also controlled the legislature. Now they are at war. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds the presidency and the Executive Yuan and the pan-blue coalition led by the
For decades, Taiwan Railway trains were built and serviced at the Taipei Railway Workshop, originally built on a flat piece of land far from the city center. As the city grew up around it, however, space became limited, flooding became more commonplace and the noise and air pollution from the workshop started to affect more and more people. Between 2011 and 2013, the workshop was moved to Taoyuan and the Taipei location was retired. Work on preserving this cultural asset began immediately and we now have a unique opportunity to see the birth of a museum. The Preparatory Office of National