A little of each town’s story

Dongdamen Night Market and Indigenous Street

From: Hualien: the sea and delicious everyday life

The gate of Indigenous Street

Hualien City's big night market. About nine hectares are divided into four sections, Fuding Night Market, Ziqiang Night Market, Indigenous Street and the street of mainland provincial food, with more than 400 stalls in all. Indigenous Street gathers stalls serving the food of Taiwan's indigenous peoples.

Sources: supertaste.tvbs.com.tw

This moment in the journey

Indigenous food at the night market

When it comes to the pleasures of Taiwan, nothing beats a night market. Hualien has a big one, Dongdamen Night Market, with more than 400 stalls. Through the gate of Indigenous Street (原住民一條街), stalls selling Taiwanese indigenous food lined the way.

Over a charcoal grill sizzled sausages seasoned with maqaw (馬告), a rare spice said to grow wild deep in the mountains where Taiwan's indigenous peoples live. It smells refreshingly of lemongrass. Then bamboo-tube rice (竹筒飯), cooked inside a length of bamboo: split it open, and out came a roll of chewy sticky rice.

The scent of bamboo in the rice and the fresh fragrance of maqaw livened up the hot night. In Taiwan, there is a festive atmosphere in everyday life.

Watch this scene on YouTube5:04

Read this scene in the full journey