“Freshly steamed buns! Freshly steamed buns! Three for 50 kuai! Just finished steaming! No need to wait in line!” a fifty-something vendor calls out to passersby on the streets of Taipei in Mandarin Chinese. He lifts the lid off of a tall stack of cylindrical tin steamers to reveal a huddle of buns cloaked in steam. “Assorted fillings. An old, traditional recipe! Three for 50 kuai!”
Across the street another voice echoes, this time in Taiwanese: “Guava, 10 kuai! 10 kuai!” A few shoppers turn their attention to the sound of a good deal, and join a growing crowd. Pale green and the size of softballs, the guavas are but one of the many winter tropical fruits being sold at the corner stand today. Next to them sit mounds of waxy mountain apples, persimmons, and red dragon fruit. “10 kuai! 10 kuai! Sweet guava!” The saleswoman repeats in Mandarin Chinese...
University of California Press