Told through the visage of cute animal avatars, this delicious manga travelogue follows the journey of a mangaka and friends as they explore Taiwan via both illustrations and photography. Readers can pull up a chair and enjoy the deliciousness in this release without the need to worry about calories!

First Time in Taiwan: A Delicious Adventure has art and story by Muta Yuki. English translation is done by Robert Harkins and lettering by Marcos Vinfcius Ribeiro. Published by Manga Mavericks (October 22, 2025). Rated A.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

At only forty pages, it's a little difficult to discuss First Time in Taiwan in depth. It's a short little snapshot of the creator's trip to the island nation, seen through the lens of finding restaurants. Both dishes they indulge in have Japanese counterparts, so most of the adventure is seeing how other people eat familiar foods, and there's a simple joy to this. Little surprises, like ice in a dessert that isn't served frozen in Japan, take on outsize importance as Muta Yuki revels in the small details. It's about realizing similarities while still appreciating differences.

The longer of the two chapters does this very well. The central food is hot pot, a dish Yuki is very familiar with. While the Taiwanese version has a lot of similarities, what's exciting is the difference in restaurants. The author and their party initially try to go to a famous hot pot restaurant, but when both it and a neighboring establishment are too crowded with horrible wait times, they find a third place with no lines. This, it turns out, is where the locals go; although not explicitly stated, it's clear that the other restaurants were tourist traps. But at the local place, they get to experience the real differences, mostly that diners get to go to a giant refrigerator to pick their own ingredients, which are then cooked in a single type of broth at the table. The sheer joy of picking out meats and veggies is contagious.

The art is adorable, with everyone being drawn as different animals. The food is appetizingly drawn, although also quite loosely, and overall this is simply nice. If you want to read a better book about a Japanese woman visiting Taiwan, I'd suggest Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ (seriously, read it, it's amazing), but for a quick bite, this is very pleasant.

Erica Friedman
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Everyone has a story of some place and some food that really stuck with them. Food and travel are my go-to conversation starters with people I meet. Manga Maverick's First Time In Taiwan: A Delicious Adventure, translated by Robert Hawkins with a pleasantly chatty tone, feels very much like a conversation one might have with someone met by chance while traveling elsewhere.

Muta Yuki's cute little anime-like characters emphasized the family experience, as we get to enjoy the rain, the food, and the atmosphere of tropical Taiwan. Taiwanese people, also portrayed as animals, are exactly as welcoming and cheerful as one might expect of people working in the hospitality industry to foreign tourists.

The food is reproduced with enough accuracy that reading this manga made me hungry. There is a casual tone to the work, as if we are walking along with the creator's family as they wander from place to place, trying new and Taiwanese versions of foods they are used to.

The main chunk of the narrative centers on eating hotpot, which is always a communal meal in every culture. They give up on going to a famous restaurant because of the extensive wait, and if you have ever visited anywhere for any reason, you, too, are familiar with this experience. The family's decision to choose a little local place over the famous restaurant warmed my heart as much as the hot pot probably warmed theirs.

This is a very comfy little manga. I don't know that I'm running out and making any of these dishes, but should I find myself in Taiwan (it is on the list, for sure), I bet I'll end up looking for a pork and egg bao one day and thanking Muta-sensei for giving me some hints on yummy Taiwanese food to eat. On second thought….there is a Taiwanese restaurant in my town. I guess I know what I'm doing this week!

I didn't expect to be watching a family of animal-people eating Taiwanese food with gusto today, but I'm not sad I did. Hopefully you'll grab this and enjoy Muta-sensei's family vacation, as well.