Low-Carbing in Taipei: Mission Improbable

Right about now we’re about smack in the middle of the time between the new year as celebrated in New Zealand and the new year as celebrated in China. One common new year’s resolution is to go on a diet. For those of you in Taiwan who have decided that this is the time to give low-carbing a try – you’ve probably chosen the worst time of your life to start. Seriously – have you had a meal here lately? Rice, noodles, dumplings, with loads of sugar in most sauces. Good luck.

I am one of those idiots. Having low-carbed here since November, with a 10 day break over Christmas and New Year’s, I’ve come to realize that it’s not mission impossible – just mission improbable.

So, for anyone else out there that is thinking about giving it a try, or anyone who already is on low-carbs and is preparing to move to Taipei, here is the low-down on what I’ve been able to find where.

Books

Taipei 101’s Page 1 bookstore: walk all the way through the store to the far end, to the left of the children’s area: there you will find the health/diet section. In November, they had a decent range and had in stock a copy of the 2002 Atkins book. (As I bought it, I don’t know whether they still have it in stock.)

Grocery sources

My groceries are sourced from three different places: my local Wellcome supermarket in Shi Da, Costco in Neihu, and Jasons in Taipei 101.

Costco is where I buy the bulk of my groceries. Upside: decent quality, good range of meats (fresh, frozen and tinned), often find imported goods you weren’t expecting to see, such as Hass avocados from New Zealand. Downside: The packages are bulk size and one cart can set you back a lot of qian2. If you don’t chow through your veges, you may find they have spoiled before you have finished the package. So far I have had pretty good luck.

From Jasons, I generally buy cheese (they have a decent range), salad veges I can’t find at Costco, herbs, and dietary supplements.

Wellcome brings up the rear with the remaining herbs (generally coriander), and New Zealand cream and butter (Anchor). And cat food, which I hope to never eat.

A low-carb pantry tour



Philadelphia (everywhere)
3-lbs Daisy sour cream (Costco)
McCormicks herb and salad dressing mixes (Costco)
Tinned oysters, tuna, crab meat, and (a new one for me) chicken (Costco)
Anchor New Zealand cream and butter (Wellcome)
Babybel individual cheeses (Costco)
Anchor shredded mozzarella cheese (this time Wellcome but usually Jasons)



Convenient mix of frozen veggies, remove the carrots to reduce the carbs (Costco)



Buy bulk packs of meat, fish and poultry and divide them up into ziplocks for convenience. Picture here are ziplocks of chicken breasts (Costco).



Bulk Splenda in individual packets (Costco). I have yet to find jars of Splenda.
FiberMate –psyllium husks without too many carbs added (Jasons, pricey)
True lime – individual packets of lime flavouring for cooking or drinking (I use with coriander to make marinades and with sparkling water to drink) (Jasons)
Bulk macadamia nuts, one of my best buys – unlike other brands, is not swimming in extra added carbs, be careful for example not to buy honey roasted (Costco)

If anyone knows where in Taipei I can find flaxseed, I’d love to know.

Other frequent low-carb buys

Fresh salmon fillets and USA beef steaks (Costco, butchery department)
Frozen non-marinated salmon steaks (Costco, freezer department)
Assorted small packs of seafood such as cockles (Jasons)
Pre-peeled garlic and pre-shredded ginger (Jasons)
Sparkling mineral water in bulk (Costco)
Romaine lettuce, capsicums, onions and tomatoes in bulk packs (Costco)
30-count trays of eggs (Costco)
Bulk Kirkland non-marinated non-smoked non-precooked bacon (Costco)
And finally, a shout out to my favourite mushroom: Golden mushrooms!! (Everywhere)

Reading labels for Carbs

Ladies and gentleman, I present the only frozen pre-prepared food I have found in my Wellcome with acceptable carb levels. Mini chicken steak with garlic and black pepper:



On the reverse side of the package is the label showing nutritional information. Here are the characters for carbohydrates: 碳水化合物 (tan4 shui3 hua4 he2 wu4).



Be careful though: in this case, the information is for a 100 gram serving and package is 350 grams. Grams: 公分 (gong1 fen1)

Eating out

Eating out can far more of a challenge than back home in western countries. Take a city which uses carbs as its main food group, add in language barriers, and you may wish you’d stayed at home.

By far my favourite option for eating out low carb is hot pot. Find a nice low-carb base such as lemongrass (I hope), add green veges and a world full of meat, fish, chicken, eggs and bob’s your uncle.



(Picture courtesy of my older sister who visited over Christmas and New Years)

Korean BBQ can also be okay depending on what sauce the meat has been marinated in.

In western restaurants, do as you would back home. Order a steak with sauce on the side, order a green salad, and order another steak if you’re still hungry. Eat the topping but not the pizza base. At Burger King, toss the buns. Take the breading off the fried chicken. You can sometimes try this technique in Chinese restaurants (ever tried eating just the inside of the dumpling? Messy but can be tasty) to get by until you can get home and eat a proper meal. At my local Thai restaurant, I often order kebabs without the sauce or steamed lemongrass seafood.

At any restaurant In Case Of Emergency: Order a plate of qing1 cai4. Basically, sautéed green leafy vegetables. Sometimes, it’s as close as you’re going to get to low carb. Then eat the nuts you should be carrying in a Ziploc for times such as these, and you’ll be fine.

Cooking at home

Back home, low carbers try to recreate their favourite carby foods such as pizza bases or mashed “potatoes” using cauliflower. This year I’m hoping to figure out how to recreate some of my favourite Taiwan foods into a low-carb equivalent.

Witness my first attempt this year: Shaved ice.

Take a NZ weight watchers jelly (kindly provided by a visiting relative or friend), make up with ½ cup hot water (until crystals are dissolved), then the remaining liquid using chilled water. Grab your cheap Taiwanese electric beaters, and slowly pour in half a litre of whipping cream (you can buy litre cartons from Costco).

Beat beat beat until niiice and frothy. Set the bowl in the freezer for an hour, then beat again. Repeat (freeze, beat). Then leave to freeze overnight. Remove bowl from freezer, take a ceramic soup spoon (the frozen ice will bend a metal spoon) and scrape at the top layer to form the shaved ice. Once the top layer is off, the rest seems very easy to scrape (due to the gelatine?) and is remarkably like our favourite summer Taiwan treat.

Here is a bowl of lime (yum! Don’t bag it until you’ve tried it) low-carb shaved ice: