Taiwanese YouTubers (Part 1) • 台灣YouTubers（第一集）

Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。

Transition Music（音樂）

As promised, today I will be beginning my three-part series on Taiwanese YouTubers. Today, I will discuss two different food-related channels: 千千進食中 and Nora Hsu-Barrel Leaf.

Under each YouTube channel I discuss, there are some related channel recommendations I provide because, trying to be as thorough as possible in researching each YouTube channel, this blog post/podcast episode was starting to get a bit too long. I may discuss those related channel recommendations in the future, but there are so many other topics I would like to explore and discuss, and this is already a three-part series, so we’ll see.

Note: my translations of Chinese are in parentheses in most cases.

1. 千千進食中 (Chien-Chien is Eating) is a YouTube channel created by Chien-Chien, a tall Taiwanese woman with a big appetite. Chien-Chien was formerly a nurse, but after competing in a Japanese eating contest in 2016, she started broadcasting eating videos on Facebook and eventually created her popular YouTube channel. One thing I love about Chien-Chien and her videos is that, unlike competitive eaters (like Matt Stonie), she eats slowly, even though she does eat a lot, and she features food from local restaurants in some videos, shows the cooking process in others, and always talks about the flavor and texture of the food she’s eating. Instead of stuffing food down her throat as fast as possible, she eats slowly and with intent.

   1. Description (under the “About” section of her Youtube channel): 175 / 唱跳歌手(?) 是個只要有美食就會感到幸福的人 (175 cm. Singer & dancer? Is an as-long-as-provided-with-delicious-food-will-feel-happiness-type person).

   2. Tabs: In addition to uploads, Chien-Chien has three other tabs: 千千的地獄廚房 (Chien-Chien’s Hell Kitchen; cooking [and eating] videos)，水水哦北move (Good North Move; videos where Chien-Chien tries foods from restaurants and food stands in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan)，and 水水來嘗鮮 (Tasting Good Food; videos where Chien-Chien tries foods from supermarkets and convenience stores [as I’ve mentioned before, convenience stores in Taiwan are said to be much better than their counterparts in the USA]). She also has another channel called 千千生活中 (Chien-Chien’s Life) where she shares vlogs.

   3. Language: Most all of Chien-Chien’s videos are in Mandarin Chinese and have Traditional Chinese subtitles. I’ve noticed that some of her older videos offer subtitles in other languages, including English.

   4. Recommended: Chien-Chien is one of my absolute favorite Taiwanese YouTubers, so I’ve seen a lot of her videos. One of my favorite series she did is called 水水做伙吃透透 (Let’s Go Get Food) where Chien-Chien, along with other YouTubers, travel to different places in Taiwan and try a plethora of different local dishes. The episodes are an hour long each, but definitely worth watching and very engaging. There are also English subtitles!

   5. Related Channels: 台灣大胃王丁丁 (Taiwanese Big Eater Ding Ding) & 路路LULU (LuLu)

2. Nora Hsu-Barrel Leaf is a YouTube channel created by a Taiwanese girl named Nora Hsu, also known as Barrel Leaf, and she shares vegan recipes, food reviews, and a few more personal videos mainly relating to eating disorders. She’s definitely a bit more lesser known, and I’m not sure how I happened upon her channel. Personally, I usually say I am pescatarian with vegan and vegetarian tendencies, as I do eat fish and eggs but no livestock, poultry, or dairy, so some days I will eat completely vegetarian, some days completely vegan, and other days I’ll eat fish. I think I primarily eat a vegetarian diet with the occasional bite of fish. Being this type of eater, and also a curious cook who has been exploring more Chinese, Taiwanese, Asian cuisine, I originally became interested in her content since her recipes suit my diet, allow me to explore Taiwanese cuisine (she does have a lot of recipes that aren’t Taiwanese cuisine), and help me learn how to read recipes in traditional Chinese.

   1. Description: Hi, I'm Nora, aka. Barrelleaf, a girl who had an eating disorder but saved by "Food." I share delicious Vegan Recipes, Baking Experiences, foods, and life.

   2. Tabs: In addition to uploads, Nora has six other tabs, including Vegan Desserts 全植物 純素無蛋奶甜點，Vlog / What I Eat 全植物飲食生活，Shopping Haul 來開箱，Chat with Nora 來聊聊，Taste Test 來吃吃看，Vegan Recipes 全植物 素食食譜，and Vegan Recipes in 3 minutes.

   3. Language: Most of her videos are in Chinese. However, there are a few in English and a few with English subtitles.

   4. Recommended: One of the first videos I watched was her review of peanut butters from five different countries, including Taiwan, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States. When I watched her video, I was so excited because the peanut butter she tried from the United States was from Trader Joe’s, and having tried many different brands of peanut butter, Trader Joe’s salted crunchy peanut butter is one of my absolute favorites because there are only two ingredients, roasted peanuts and salt, the peanuts used are roasted, resulting in a richer flavor than your average peanut butter, and the price is pretty reasonable, just $1.99 for a 16oz or 1 lb jar of PB. Definitely slightly more expensive than lower quality peanut butters with more additives, but not by much. Anyway, the jar she tried was Trader Joe’s crunchy peanut butter, but it was unsalted; when ranking the jars, TJ’s PB was not at the top, but I feel like she may have liked it with salt, as a balanced portion of salt helps bring the flavor out in food. If you’re as much of a peanut butter lover as me, you should definitely check her video out. Though, please note the video is in Mandarin Chinese and there are no subtitles.

   5. Related Channels: Xiaoying Cuisine & 曼食慢語 Amanda Tastes

So that concludes part one of my Taiwanese YouTubers series. Next week, I will share information about a few more channels that release what best could be described as more educational content. See you then!

Transition Music（音樂）

Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！