Man Selling Bamboo Shoot In Bailan Market

It's called a marketplace, but there are no roofs or buildings here. People were setting up shops on the sides of the road. It seemed to be like an open-air market. And, the way of setting up the shop seemed to be different for each person. Some put up a table and displayed their goods on it, while others laid them out haphazardly on a rug on the ground.

The man in this photo was of the latter type. He was spreading his wares on the ground and himself sitting in a small chair doing his business. If you look closely, you can see that the man was also selling bamboo shoots. Several of the bamboo shoots on the ground still had dirt on them and looked as if they had been harvested just a few minutes ago. Since it says "Bali" on the label, it seems to have been picked in Bali district, a little north of Taipei.

I guess people in Taiwan like to eat bamboo shoots just as much as people in Japan. I have a feeling that Chinese food and bamboo shoots are good for each other. However, as I was looking at the bamboo shoots, I felt something strange. In Japan, the season of a bamboo shoot is early spring, but it is in the middle of summer now. The season is totally different, yet there are fresh bamboo shoots in front of a store. The peak season of bamboo shoots in Taiwan seems to be July and August.