Many foreigners find 7-11 & Family Mart to be a life saver when they are first beginning to navigate food in Taiwan. But of course even that can be a challenge if you’re vegetarian and can’t read Chinese ingredients list!

Once you know which things are safe though,  7-11s and Family Marts can be a life line (especially once you venture outside of Taipei for more rural adventures!)

So… here’s your survival vegetarian / vegan guide to subsisting of convenience store food in Taiwan.

1. Cold Noodles 

Both Family Mart and 7-Eleven have cold noodles and they are a great breakfast, lunch or dinner option. Not all of them are vegetarian but here’s a picture of the ones that are! (vegan friends, sorry to say 7-11 & Family Mart recently changed their cold noodle selection so none of them are vegan) Look for these in the refrigerated section 🙂 

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2. Hot meals from Family Mart 

Family Mart recently added a couple of things in their refrigerated section that as of the time of this post ARE vegan!  Both the scallion pancake and Korean Spicy Rice Cakes are vegan. You may also find a bag of just plan white rice and vacuum sealed corn on the cob in the refrigerated section. When you bring these items up the counter the clerk will ask if you want them to heat it up for you – nod your head yes or no 😉 

3. Sweet potatoes 

The slow roasted sweet potatoes are another stand by for many. Use the tongs to grab one, put it in the provided brown bag along with whatever salt or seasonings you want for it and bring it up to the counter where they’ll weigh it and charge you accordingly.

4. Nuts & Fruit 

You can also buy individual bananas, pre-cut fruit and some snack packs of nuts (although nuts here are a bit expensive and you want to make sure not to accidentally grab the kind with tiny dried fish in them! Don’t worry the bags usually include a picture that will tip you off to it, just know to look before you grab 🙂 Taiwan people also love all sorts of dried fruit! And I’m particularly big fan of dried mango. Cautionary note on the fruit though, anything that says it’s “mint” flavored is probably menthol flavored – as we found out the first time we tried “mint flavored”  dried plums.People here also really like dried meat, but the difference is pretty obvious. 

5. Family Mart’s Rice Triangles  

I LOVE these!  As far as we know Family Mart is the only place that sells vegetarian ones. And they seem to frequently sell out. But if you can find them, they are a great treat. These sticky rice triangles are wrapped in seaweed and filled with bamboo shoots and.. ? Not sure. But my vegan friends assure me it IS vegan!  They sell for $27NT (less then $1 USD)  and are a very popular snack here.

IMPORTANT TIP! There’s some Japanese folding magic happening with this packaging. So in order to open it without embarrassing yourself and mangling it horribly, follow the directions! Yes, there are directions. Each corner is numbered and that is the order in which you are supposed to unwrap your treat – as illustrated on the directions on the side of the triangle.

Pictured here is the ONLY vegetarian/vegan flavor. Feel free pull this pic up and match it to the right one at the Family Mart shelf 😉

6. Tea Eggs: 

If you’re not vegan and you like hard-boiled eggs there’s always a vat of tea eggs available!

7. Mineral Packs: 

Ok,  this isn’t a food item, but they might help if you feel like you’re not getting enough nutrition from the vegetarian food you’re finding. Our vegan friends turned us on to these, assuring me that they actually aren’t made with gelatin! This surprised me because  this “drink” is essentially drinkable jello. I really like the Purple Multi-mineral one, which purports to supply calcium, zinc, copper, magnesium and iron. There’s also a Green Vitamin pack, a blue “energy” (carbohydrate) pack, and even a beauty pack (ha!). We usually stick with Green or Purple .

(Thanks to our vegan friends Carolyn & Joe for pouring over the Chinese ingredients list at 7-11 & Family Mart to verify ingredients!!)