The city of Kaohsiung is broken up into several districts. I used to live in the Gushan District (near the mountain that borders Kaohsiung to the west) and now live in the Zuoying District. Last Saturday my friends Kei and Leyang took me to the Sanmin District to do a little shopping. This district is one of the oldest so you get a feel of what this city was like many years ago.
They took me to this huge market that is completely covered and offers items from meats to produce to clothing and shoes. Sanmin market is known for having many different butchers and for making dumplings. As you walk around the market, you see butchers hard at work slicing, dicing and breaking down huge pieces of meat. I find this completely fascinating.
Pork is the way to go in this country...it outnumbered every other type of meat.
When you order chicken here you get the whole thing - head, insides, feet. You get the whole thing when you order duck too, even the head with bill intact.
There is a type of chicken here with black skin. Tastes pretty much the same as the other guy next to it.
Some of these fish were still jumping and moving...
...but obviously not this guy.
Mixed in with all of these butchers were several stalls where they were making dumplings of all kinds...pork, veggie, cabbage, etc. They are so fast! This one woman? A dumpling in less than 10 seconds!
Little pork trotters hanging out waiting to be picked out.
This was the only stand selling beef. You don't see a lot of beef here and many people don't eat it. I'm not sure if it's for religious reasons or out of respect for the animal. One story I heard is that cows were used in farming fields and that they don't feel right eating beef. Who knows?
As with all of the markets I've gone to during my 10 months in Taiwan, I am always impressed with how beautifully everything is presented and how inexpensive it all is. For example, I bought a box of 20 dumplings for $50 NT, which is about $1.50 US. It makes for some good eating at a great price!
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