Taiwanese cuisine is not very gluten-free friendly, as its staple foods include noodles, buns, and dumplings, while soy sauce, doubanjiang, and other gluten-containing sauces are used to flavour practically everything. People with severe gluten intolerances who cannot stomach small amounts of soy sauce should not visit Taiwan (as many micro-glutens are found in sauces and pastes), unless you plan on cooking your own meals. To add to the difficulty, a spacious kitchen is very hard to come by and an oven is almost unheard of.

Here’s our list of gluten-friendly options, but be aware that cross contamination is common.

Gluten intolerances don't really exist within Chinese and Taiwanese genetics and learning how to communicate your allergies is really important. Here are a few important phrases: 

我不能吃麵，麵包，麵粉什麼的，因為我對小麥過敏。

Wǒ bùnéng chī miàn, miànbāo, miànfěn shénme de, yīnwèi wǒ duì xiǎomài guòmǐn.

I can’t eat noodles, bread, flour etc. because I’m allergic to wheat.

這個菜的外面有沒有麵粉？

Zhège cài de wàimiàn yǒu méiyǒu miànfěn?

Does the outside of this dish contain flour? (useful for fried dishes - sometimes you’ll get lucky and it’ll be coated in corn starch)

我不能吃醬油或者豆瓣醬。

Wǒ bùnéng chī jiàngyóu huòzhě dòubàn jiàng.

I can’t eat soy sauce or doubanjiang (a type of fermented bean paste used often in Taiwanese cooking).

我不能吃麵，可是我能吃冬粉和河粉。你可以把麵換到冬粉或者河粉嗎？

Wǒ bùnéng chī miàn, kěshì wǒ néng chī dōng fěn hàn hé fěn. Nǐ kěyǐ bǎ miàn huàn dào dōng fěn huòzhě hé fěn ma?

I can’t eat noodles, but I can eat mung bean noodles and wide rice noodles . Can you substitute one of those for the noodles?