I didn’t know that rice with sliced meat could become a lunch box until I went to Taipei for studying. In Tainan, Few restaurants would make rice with sliced meat as a lunch box, but most of them would sell rice with sliced meat only. Therefore, the first time I knew this food, I was surprised. Because it is cheaper than other kinds of lunch boxes, I often ate it after I study in NCCU. Many restaurants near NCCU sell lunch boxes of rice with sliced meat, and I often went to three restaurants of them. One is Eating House, another is The King of Thick Soup, and the other is Private Noodles.

       The rice with sliced meat in the three restaurants has a lot of differences. First, the sliced meats are a little different. The most special sliced meat is the one in The King of Thick Soup. The taste is salty with a little sweet. It is also a little sour because the cooks mix the sliced meat with some dried bamboo shoots. However, the sliced meat is the greasiest of the three restaurants. The sliced meat in Eating House tastes salty but not saltier than the ones in the other two restaurants. However, the sliced meat has the most juice of the three restaurants. I like the taste of Private Noodles’ sliced meat most. It tastes less salty than the one in The King of Thick Soup. It is just right, not too greasy or juicy, between the ones in the other two restaurants.

       Second, the side dishes are very different. There are three side dishes in Eating House. Two of them are always cabbage and a half of a marinated egg, and the other dish is uncertain. The side dishes in The King of Thick Soup are always the same.   

They are many dried bamboo shoots, a little pork jerky, a half of a marinated egg and a dried soybean curd. There are also three side dishes in Private Noodles, but they all alter with the change of seasons.

       Third, Referring to the quantities, the one in Eating House is the champion. The amounts of their rice and the side dishes are the most. Besides, the customers can drink the black tea they offer unlimitedly. The amounts of the rice with sliced meat in the other two restaurants are almost the same, but in Private Noodles, the cook would offer a bowl of seaweed soup with the lunch box. When only mentioning the quantities, I like the one in Eating House most because of not only the amounts but also the black tea.

       In my first year in NCCU, the one in Eating House cost forty dollars, and the one in The King of Thick soup cost forty- five dollars, but I didn’t know the price of the one in Private noodles at that time because I didn’t go to Private noodles until I was in the second grade. However, the prices are rising now. The ones in Eating House and in The King of Thick soup are fifty dollars now, but in Private Noodles, It costs fifty-five dollars. I think the prices are a little expensive now although they are still cheaper than most of the other kinds of lunch boxes.