Despite all the pics of restaurant food, we actually try to eat healthy and cook at home the majority of the time. This means a lot of grocery shopping. We try to do it when Ellie is at school 
so she doesn’t get bored and also so we can use the extra stroller space to carry groceries home (we don’t have a scooter or car). Here is a pic of us walking home, stroller full of our weekly groceries.
In general, the differences in grocery shopping here from back home all point to one thing: Asia seems geared towards fresher food and less overall consumption.
Naturally, my conclusion is mainly based on Oreos. When I buy a pack of Oreos in the states, they don’t make you wait to consume the entire box. Just peal back the opening and go to town. 
Here, they are packaged individually with 3 in each bundle. This is such a pain when all I want to do is eat an entire box of Oreos after a long day. I mean, opening 9 packages is just too much work to eat 27 cookies. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still something I will do, but I’ll be angry about it as I do it. 
Seriously though, no one here does bulk shopping (outside of a few big grocery stores such as Costco, Carrefour, or Dollars). There is little need as there are dozens of small grocery stores at each city corner.
In fact, we’ve never seen anyone stuff as much in these tiny carts as we have personally. We often wonder why no one is buying more than a few items….do they eat out every day? The best we can tell is that they just shop more often. This would make sense since they’re everywhere, and you’d get the freshest fruits and veggies (and fewer processed and frozen foods). Most foods come in smaller packaging/quantities such as milk, eggs, and chips.
Less is also thrown away and more is recycled. You have to pay $1TWD (approx 32 cents) for every plasic bag they give you to bag your groceries. This isn’t much money but its interesting how it encourages everyone to bring their own bags. We’re also very used to grabbing a handful of napkins wherever we go in the states, but here they are hard to come by. Some restaurants don’t even have any at the tables. 
When you do find them, they are paper thin and more like tissue. As a consequence, there aren’t any public trash cans here either. Be prepared to keep that empty soda can until you get home. And if you ever go to McDonalds, “lots of ketchup please” will yield you exactly 1 ketchup packet.
When we’re 
not grocery shopping, we’re hitting up the fruit/veggie markets on the side of the street. Here is a pic of Ellie and Vera waiting for their order of deep fried bread stuffed with onions & meat, and another pic of Ly buying some fresh steamed peanuts and roasted glutenous corn.
At the department stores, it’s funny to see all the knock offs. Here are some of my favorites, with USA brands on the left and pictures I took in Taiwan on the right:
My little Pony, vs My little Horse
Hollister vs “Holidays”
Someone must have had a blurry picture to work off of when counterfeiting this graphic.
FILA vs FLDPIA?
Lacoste vs Crocodile (this is marketed as a high end brand)
Spurs vs Splash
Transformers vs Tobot
Who doesn’t want an animal collar, and these shorts are very common on men, not women
I don’t exactly know what these are
Were they trying to say…Real men act gentle? Act like a gentleman? Gentleman act real? Regardless, I do like the monocle!