Convenience Store Food

Updated August, 2018

For most of my decade in Taiwan, a vegan snack has never far away, thanks to all the convenience stores. Unfortunately, however, around 2016 all convenience stores discontinued their vegan and even vegetarian frozen meal ranges. My guess is that this is because there are now so many vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan that vegans stopped buying them. It's unfortunate though, as there were times that the 7-Eleven frozen meal especially was quite a life saver. Most now have some snack food, but nothing which vaguely constitutes a meal. I recommend asking the staff to help you find anything with the vegan labels  純素 or 全素, preferably when they are quiet, such as the late hours. If you can't find any snack food to your liking, most sell baked sweet potatoes: take one off the hot stones, put it in a paper bag and take it to the counter to be weighed. I don't recommend eating the skin.

Bananas are a good option for calories on the go. Soymilk is always vegan. Most convenience stores sell a range of nuts and dried fruits, and some vegan potato chips etc. Beware that some nuts contain fish (usually shown in pictures) but it pays to check for the vegan symbol (see above) to be sure.

Beware that, as far as I am aware, all breads from convenience stores in Taiwan contain dairy and/or egg. The broth used for the take-out tofu etc almost certainly contains animal ingredients (but packaged tofu should be fine).

Some convenience stores sell Soyjoy (from Japan). Unfortunately all the ones sold in Taiwan (as of May 2018) contain egg. Vegan Soyjoy (the "Crispy" series) are available in Japan but as of August, 2018, I have not seen any in Taiwan.

NOT VEGAN: Soy maybe, but they also contains egg. (Image from Wikimedia Commons)
(from my Japan Vegan blog)

Please let me know if you find anything not up to date on this page. Thank you.