Flavour as a taste:
The Taiwanese take great pride in their food. It seems there is a culture of "small eats" or "shiao tze" similar to the tapas style of Spain. On every street you walk down you will see a plethora of eateries - whether they be food stalls or restaurants. You can often find expensive high-class restaurants sandwiched between cheap street vendors selling products at 1/100th of the price but just as tasty.
What stuns me is the creativity in cooking of Taiwan. In the rural communities I believe this is not down to artistic license, but through necessity. These are areas where money is no object and boredom through repetition of meals is ekingly conquered. Whilst this theory does not hold true in the financial districts of the bigger cities today, my (unproven) gut-feeling is that this creativity is passed down to the current generation from their ancestors.
Flavour as a smell:
In the centre of the cities, the smell is absolutely horrible. As with any other major city in the world, all that enters your nostrils is the smog and pollution from the hundreds of motor vehicles that pass you every minute. Further, if strong-smelling cooking ingredients aren't to your taste, you could find your clothes and yourself smelling like your lunch.
But once in a while you walk by a temple in the most unexpected areas of the city. An area of calm and where the smoke from the incense sticks gently aromatise the air. In these pockets of peace you can perhaps hear yourself think and find your introspective self. You might even ponder things which you never though you would.
Flavour as a sight:
There is a stark contrast between cities and countryside. Taiwan is only 80km at its widest, and through the centre there is an enormous mountain range with a highest peak of 3,952m (the highest in North-east Asia). These steep-sided mountains add to the excitement and variety of an under-rated country whose gems remain unvisited by popular tourist culture.
Flavour as a culture:
As I wander through the streets I notice a lack of heavy franchising except for only a handful of names (mainly 7-eleven). Most of the shops to be seen are family-owned and so there is a greater sense of community even from a business angle.
Family life is very regimented in Taiwan (as too with the rest of Asia). There is an automatic respect for the elders and they are always right. No quarreling, no this, no that.
Education here is so under-valued amongst peers. Nearly everyone in their late 20s or 30s in Taiwan has a degree of some description which all but decimates its worth. It's simply not enough to have a bachelors degree here, and even jobs such as hotel management see people come out with masters qualifications.
Schoolkids have the most gruelling time here and it's no wonder that some completely slack off when they head abroad to other countries. From the age of 12, not only do they have to start school at 7.30am and end at 5pm, they also head to night classes from 7pm until 9pm for 6 days a week. This weekly cycle takes a recess for a few weeks during the summer, but then it starts all over again.
So what is the flavour of Taiwan? Well, quite interesting if you ask me....and quite different from home (UK) too.
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