Turkish Wu Feng loves Taiwan / Taiwanese people sure can eat — do they have bottoms as wide as boats?

Text and photos by Wu Feng / Excerpted from "A Hick Loves Taiwan: 28 Surprising Life Moments with Wu Feng"

About Wu Feng:
His Chinese name is Wu Chengfeng, a “hick” (read: Turkish guy), though not so old. He can speak fluent Turkish, German, English, and Chinese, and can also write them. Originally a tour guide in Turkey, one day he had an epiphany (what kind?), feeling that this way of life couldn’t go on. So, having always had a strange longing for Taiwan, after graduating from university, he buckled down, studied hard, got into Ankara University, and studied Chinese and Sinology intensively. Four years later, with a Taiwan scholarship in hand, he came to Taiwan as he wished to study at National Taiwan Normal University.

After arriving in Taiwan, everything about the place opened the eyes of this “hick.” The various customs of Taiwan, which were totally different from Turkey and jaw-dropping, as well as the warm and hospitable personalities of Taiwanese people, left a deep impression on Wu Feng!

These cultural shocks did not scare Wu Feng away; instead, they made him fall even more deeply in love with everything about Taiwan. Now, he has lived in Taiwan for six years and has become a true-blue “Taiwanese local” who feels like doomsday has come if he goes a day without eating tofu pudding!

There is a type of restaurant that is very common in Taiwan, and that is the “all-you-can-eat” buffet. I’ve lived in Taiwan for six years now and have, of course, been to many all-you-can-eat restaurants. For me, “all-you-can-eat” means “eat until your stomach explodes,” because Taiwanese people’s eating “power” at buffets is truly incredibly strong!

I used to be a tour guide and waiter in Turkey, and I often saw how others ate, but I’ve never seen anyone who could eat better than Taiwanese people. You really can’t underestimate Taiwanese people. Though they are small in stature and not as tall as Westerners, their stomachs seem to have some super factory that keeps processing food non-stop, allowing them to keep eating and eating. Despite that, I rarely see really overweight people in Taiwan; on the contrary, there are quite a lot of big foreigners.

Moreover, the best thing about all-you-can-eat restaurants in Taiwan is that they’re very cheap. Even the higher-end all-you-can-eat restaurants in Taiwan cost no more than NT$1,000, and you can definitely eat your fill. If you go abroad, it would definitely cost more than that!

Once, a Taiwanese friend invited me to an all-you-can-eat at a five-star hotel in Taipei, and it was only NT$1,000 per person. I’ve also eaten at a really amazing and delicious all-you-can-eat restaurant in Kaohsiung for just over NT$800 — it was so cheap. For the same price, in Turkey, although you can eat tasty food, you definitely can’t get top-tier ingredients, let alone unlimited servings.

There are many types of all-you-can-eat restaurants in Taiwan: hot pot, barbecue, seafood, and even BBQ can be all-you-can-eat. Abroad, all-you-can-eat BBQ is very expensive, so it’s rare to go. But after coming to Taiwan, I often go to all-you-can-eat BBQ.

Every time I go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant, I try my best to eat, stuff myself, and go crazy eating. But I still can’t surpass my Taiwanese friends — even the Taiwanese girls out-eat me. Every time I see everyone devouring food like maniacs, I can’t help but think: what on earth are Taiwanese people putting in their stomachs?

When I go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant, I love observing the girls. Let me clarify: I’m not a pervert, okay?! I just think that Taiwanese girls’ appetites are seriously not to be underestimated. Those usually cute, delicate beauties transform into the Hulk once they step into an all-you-can-eat restaurant!

I had a girlfriend before who was just like that. Every time we went to an all-you-can-eat restaurant, she would start giving orders.
“Wu Feng, get me some shrimp.”
“Wu Feng, I want to eat lamb.”
“Wu Feng, get me beef, get me tomatoes, get me chicken!” … Oh my god, is my girlfriend secretly a monster?!

There’s another really interesting phenomenon at all-you-can-eat restaurants. Whenever the staff puts new ingredients on the shelves, everyone swarms over to grab the freshest items, almost like a competition. This is one of the activities I love participating in too (you think I’m just there to play?). Every time the staff shouts, “The beef is here!” I’ll rush over with everyone else to grab meat. Haha!

I remember when I first came to Taiwan, a Taiwanese friend took me to an all-you-can-eat restaurant, and it was a real shock to the system. At the time, my friend thought that foreigners must experience Taiwan’s all-you-can-eat culture, so they treated me to a meal.

It was a pretty nice restaurant, and I liked the atmosphere. The price wasn’t high either. After sitting down, everyone started eating. They’d go pick up food, then dig in heartily, but in less than thirty minutes, I felt full. I looked over at my Taiwanese friends, and it was like they had just started eating — their fighting power hadn’t dropped at all. I thought, okay, maybe they’ll be full in another hour. But an hour passed, and my friends showed no signs of stopping. They ate lamb, fish, shrimp, then more lamb, beef, shrimp... going round and round.

My friend noticed I got full quickly and said to me, “Wu Feng, at Taiwanese all-you-can-eats, you’ve got to eat fiercely to have fun. It’s such a waste if you only eat a little!”
Oh my god. How was I only eating a little? To me, it was already a huge amount — I almost wanted to throw up. But in the eyes of my Taiwanese friends, I might as well not have eaten anything.

I will always remember the shock of stepping into an all-you-can-eat restaurant for the first time. That night, we stayed in the restaurant for over two hours, and most of the time, I was just watching my friends eat. I kept thinking, if I ate as much as my Taiwanese friends, I’d probably be hospitalized by now. Taiwanese people are really amazing!

When we left the restaurant, I asked them, “Are you full?” My friend replied, “Yeah, we’re full. But we didn’t eat enough this time. Next time we can eat even more!” If one day you see me at an all-you-can-eat restaurant and notice I’m only eating a little, please don’t laugh at me. This foreigner may be tall, but my stomach is tiny.