Apparently Ang Lee and I are not the only people of Taiwanese descent that love In-N-Out Burgers. The chain recently decided to torture their fans in Taiwan by opening up for a planned 4 hours to sell only 300 burgers, but they sold out in 2 hrs (surprise, surprise) and closed shop right after. Seeing as In-N-Out is not even opening across the U.S. and is primarily available in California, why the stunt in Taiwan of all places?
Photo Credit: lynjadesign.com
Well, it makes perfect sense to me because the first In-N-Out and its current headquarters is located in Baldwin Park, which is situated right in the heart of Los Angeles County and San Gabriel Valley (SGV). Surrounding this area are tons and tons of heavily Asian American suburban neighborhoods, and among those many Asian Americans are quite a whole lot of Taiwanese Americans, like myself. So there’s like an In-N-Out or two in every neighborhood, and I don’t know a single Taiwanese American in the area (I’ve met quite a lot of them, believe you me) and not a single one doesn’t love In-N-Out. Add on top of that a continuous traffic flow between here and Taiwan. Many Taiwanese Americans visit Taiwan every year or have someone from Taiwan visiting them. At one point, I was going back twice a year, once during summer and once during winter break, and that’s really common for a lot of Taiwanese American kids even today.
So In-N-Out in Taiwan? Of course. Just like there’s is Costco in Taiwan. Makes complete sense. If they do end up opening one up in Taiwan, it will make it a lot easier for me to stay in Taiwan for long periods of time. In-N-Out will just be a bullet train away.
