I wish I could upload a scratch and sniff, adjectives will have to suffice.

From most pleasant to most likely to trigger a gag, a countdown of the prevalent odors one encounters on any given Taiwanese block.

5. Bakeries: Bun-filled windows at Danky Bakery and countless other loving-ovens, remnants of the Dutch influence, fill the air with rising sweet dough and fillings of chocolate and/or sweet mayonnaise and/or dried shredded meats

4. BBQ: Lovely smoked pork, beef and chicken wafts are a treat to passerby nostrils, floating from the popular tiki-inspired bamboo-sided restaurants

It’s difficult to discern what’s the worst of the final three:

3. Open sewer: Poop, urine and vomit, running under the sides of the roads, their putrid concoction levitating to ground level through open-air grates

2. Festering trash: Cockroach and giant rat invested waste that’s not included in #3; it’s a sour stench

1. Stinky tofu: That’s tofu fried after soaking in a marinade of months-long fermented milk, veggies and meat that is often mistaken for manure due to its death reek.