26/12/2023
Sustainable Food Wisdom — The Foraging Culture of the Amis People
“One Amis beats three lawnmowers!” the saying goes, and the Amis describe themselves as the “grass-eating people.” Aside from embodying the tribe’s traditional food wisdom, the Amis’ enduringly robust foraging culture resonates with contemporary concerns about reducing carbon footprints and promoting sustainability and biodiversity. Go to any morning market in Hualien or Taitung, or to any restaurant or night market for tourists there, and you will find traces of their foraging culture. These wild herbs provide an entree into experiencing authentic local flavors.
“Nga’ay ho!” Wu Hsueh-yueh, the head of the Hualien Indigenous Wild Vegetable Center, greets us with the Amis hello before leading us to the Chongqing Morning Market. There we find a rack full of fruits and vegetables of various shapes and sizes. Upon inquiring, we learn that they include the flower of the common reed (often called the brush vegetable), the tender stem of the Formosan rattan palm (Calamus formosanus) and gac fruit (Momordica cochinchinensis).
Markets in Hualien also offer foraged snails, which are hard to find elsewhere in Taiwan. Some stalls will prepare them for you. Stir-fried with basil and ginger and drizzled with rice wine, they make a great snack food when drinking. “You’ll find that two glasses aren’t enough when munching on these,” laughs a stall proprietor. “You’ll want a third and a fourth!”
Trying these delicious foods, particularly the foraged ones, is an authentic local experience not to be missed on a trip to Hualien.