Things That Annoy Me About Taiwan
+ award news!
Before I get into this week’s paid newsletter post, a little flex: my debut cookbook Made in Taiwan won the 2024 IACP Julia Child First Book Award. I didn’t go to New York for the festivities, but I did get a burst of messages from my editor and friends at the ceremony who informed me of the win at 1 a.m. in the morning here in Sweden.
Like with the James Beard Awards, IACP submissions are stringently judged—a process that requires the judges to read the books cover-to-cover and recipe test. To be nominated for a James Beard and IACP was already a great honor. But to win?
Gosh, it feels good.
I gave birth to my cookbook and my son at the same time (lol). While incubating and giving birth to a human baby is no joke, writing the book was most definitely harder (raising a kid though, is completely different story). I was obsessed with Made in Taiwan, and pushed myself so hard that I pretty much have no memories from late 2021 to 2022 except for book-related vignettes.
As I’ve alluded in this newsletter a couple of times, being a full-time freelance writer is not for the faint of heart. Accolades don’t pay the bills, but they certainly are a great motivator.
Best of all, the winner of the Julia Child Award gets a grant to “support the continuation of the work of a first-time author.” It’s not a life-changing amount of money, but it does give me a bit of breathing room to really focus in on my new manuscript for the rest of the year instead of having to pitch and write one-off articles on the side just to make my monthly income quota. Cash prizes are virtually unheard of in this industry, so to celebrate, I’m pouring one out for Julia.
If you want to learn more about the cookbook writing process, consider signing up for my virtual workshop here. We have a healthy amount of sign-ups already, but there are still spaces left.
Okay enough navel-gazing. Onwards:
Things That Annoy Me About Taiwan
Taiwan is easy to fall in love with. There are certain tropes that get repeated over and over: that people are so nice, that everything is so cheap, that the food is incredible.
To all those points — yes, but there are caveats.
I’m a big believer of telling both sides of the story, and I think it’s fair to say that I’m a staunch cheerleader of Taiwan. As a resident though, I do get frustrated with life on the island. So here are some things most visitors are oblivious to, but annoy me greatly: