夜yè市shì, the night market, is perhaps the most famous food places for the tourists that visit Taiwan. 夜yè means 'night' and 市shì means 'market', so naturally the term refers to the markets at night time.
As I researched for this article, to my surprise (even), I learned that night market actually could be dated back to 唐Táng Dynasty（June 18, 618~June 4, 907）. What do you know? We are indeed a people with a long long history!! In Tang Dynasty, night markets only existed in big cities such as the capital city 长cháng安ān城chéng. There was once a ban lifted against night markets due to the noise it stirred up. The night market was officially approved and widely set up in 宋Sòng Dynasty (960~1279, pity that I cannot also include the dates, it would have been smashing if I could). Since then night markets have became part of the daily lives of the Chinese (see, we are really not a serious people, we do know our food folks and fun!! A few more rounds for this table here!).
Night markets started out with one to more food stands at the corners of the busy streets. When the food stands began to attract crowds, the cluster of food stands evolved into a larger scale market. And since nighttime tends to attract more crowds, the market opens around the end of office hours until early morning, around 2 or 3 am. After that, the regular market will take place to continue the day.
My neighborhood is blessed with one of the older night markets in Taiwan. I myself witnessed its prime time. The night market near my neighborhood is 临lín江jiāng夜yè市shì, also know by its older name 通töng化hùa夜yè市shì。 The name of the night market usually is derived from the streets it locates. 临lín江jiāng夜yè市shì is on 临lín江jiāng街Jië, which is a cross street on 通töng化hùa街Jië, but because通töng化hùa街Jië is much more famous and is a major street, people used to refer to the night market as通töng化hùa夜yè市shì. As night markets get their markings on the tourism maps, this neighborhood actually went through a debate on the name of the night market. Eventually, probably has some conspiracy or glooming political agenda behind, the night market's name was reverted back to the correct street it's on.
Within a five minutes walk, there are over 100 food stands that provide different types of food flavor, some are local cousins, some exotic. These food stands are not restaurants, so they only need a few foldable tables and stools for the eaters to stay for a short period of time before moving on to the next stand. There are no silver utensils or white linen tablecloth, not even tentative smiling waiter or waitresses. You'll probably bring your own napkin or even moist towels - with the rising the global environmental protection consciousness, you may even need to bring your own chopsticks or spoons. But what the heck, the food is good, and the food is much more affordable, so who cares if you need to bring your own stool or foldable plank for table?
So how good is the food? Well. Why don't I come back with that information next time? Let me first brush up on my food list a bit (and perhaps put on a few more pounds) and come back with my own top 10 list for your taste.
Be back soon.
(photos from google.co)
you may also like these free writings about Chinese culture
No comments:
Post a Comment