How Traditional Markets In Taiwan Work
Produce straight from the farms? ...Not exactly
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Heirloom eggplant and wild bitter melon at Binjiang Market
Visitors to Taiwan have a dewy-eyed look to them at the morning traditional markets. I often see tourists balk at the bucketfuls of squirming clams, glistening fish scales, rows of fat turnips, and long spears of celtuce.
“I wish we had this back home.”
“Taiwan just gets it. Everything is so fresh.”
There’s this perception that produce at the traditional markets is picked and shipped straight from local farms. And that every traditional market is a farmers’ market, sourced directly from small farms throughout the island.
Rarely is any of that true.
The reality is that most traditional market vendors wake up in the early morning to buy their produce and fish (meat is another story) at specialty wholesale markets throughout town—warehouses packed with truckloads of veggies, fruit or seafood. These ingredients are auctioned off by the boxes and then distributed to wet markets and supermarkets throughout the country.
This creates a situation where the cabbage you might find at your quaint neighborhood wet market is actually from the same megafarm as the cabbage they sell at PXMart or Carrefour. While there are occasional vendors who work with local farms to source specialty items (seasonal bamboo, weird fruit, foraged veg), they are staunchly the minority.
Prices are more or less the same at traditional markets and supermarkets. The former has air conditioning, transparent pricing, and parking.
So what’s the appeal of the wet market, when you can basically get the same stuff at a cushy, air-conditioned supermarket?
Cultural nostalgia
Back in the day, farmers would personally bring and offload their produce to city markets. Industrial agriculture, refrigeration, quick transport, and streamlined supply chains have made this practice obsolete.
Morning produce markets are mostly now just nostalgic neighborhood places of gathering and gossip, where you rely on relationships to stock your kitchen. Think of each vendor as a curator; you trust that they have a good selection for you to buy from.
Variety
Whereas a supermarket has just a couple of buyers, traditional markets have dozens—sometimes hundreds of buyers. These buyers are the vendors, who go to the wholesale market in the early AM to stock up for the day. While the supermarket has all your major produce and fruit, traditional markets are more likely to have more esoteric ingredients like oriental melons or wild bitter melons. There’s also a wider selection of prepared goods to pick from, like pickled mustard greens, fresh tofu skin, and braised seaweed.
When I first got my cookbook deal, I had this romantic notion that I’d be shopping at my neighborhood wet market every week for my recipes. But after a while, it just didn’t make sense. It was hard to keep track of prices, and the heat eventually became unbearable in the summer. I got tired of hopping from vendor to vendor and keeping track of their opening hours just to complete my grocery list. I also had a difficult time catching the market at its peak. Most of the good stuff would be long gone before 10 a.m., and I’d more often than not get there when the leafy greens were starting to slouch from the high temperatures.
I ended up buying most of my core ingredients at Carrefour and would only go to the traditional market for specialty items. This is how I do most of my shopping today. Heck, this is how a lot of Taiwanese people do their shopping. Because unless you’re a retired grandma who lives walking distance from a wet market, who has the time and energy anymore?
Of course, I don’t see the traditional market becoming obsolete anytime soon; they’re too much of an important part of Taiwan’s culinary fabric. What is happening, though, is that a lot of the more popular ones are modernizing by going indoors, and vendors are becoming much more specialized so they have a edge over the supermarkets. Nanmen Market near Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and Shidong Market in Tianmu are great examples of this. Nanmen has ready-to-eat food. Shiding has an Italian ham guy! Unfortunately, with global warming and soaring temperatures, being indoors or at least semi-indoors makes the most sense.
I wish there were more markets staffed and run by actual farmers in Taipei. There are a few, but the reality is that the logistics of direct farm-to-consumer isn’t very cost-effective. And I’m not convinced there’s a large enough demand for organic produce sourced directly from small farmers considering how, according to a 2015 survey, 68% of Taiwanese people eat out for all three meals.
The best way for people to buy from local farms is to purchase produce directly from the farmers. Because Taiwan is so small, ingredients can be shipped straight from the farm overnight to your doorstep. I’m starting a list of farms to buy from and will share that once I finish it.
Two Great Wholesale Markets In Taipei Open To The Public (Paid subscribers only)