Apples were a luxury in Taiwan

Just celebrated my dad’s birthday, and as we were eating cake, they talked about how they never celebrated birthdays until their teens (and 20s for my aunt).

Buttercream was expensive and not even available in Taiwan till later; only butter cakes (they said). They would only get 1 apple a year, which they took on field trip to “flex” lol.

My aunt’s cousin (mom side) had 4 younger brothers and he was supposed to bring the apple home after the trip to share (he had to bring it there to have face lol).

And they’d only get like 2–3 grapes each person and wipe it off if it fell on the floor.

How times have changed? I guess living standards have gone up worldwide in the past decades.