Friday 8 February 2013

Spice Alley, Taipei

Your juju running low? Need to place a hex? Pain in the pancreas? Head to spice alley in Taipei and get what you need. We're talking Chinese ancient medicine supplies, not a little nutmeg for your soup. Anything you can imagine is available, ready to be concocted just for you. The alley (and related nearby shops) is amazing, a living museum to the ancient medicinal arts.

The alley, looking like a regular vegetable market. Not a place to sample freely.


What you need is available, fresh or dried.

Some shops are a total mess and some have carefully cultivated the old medicine shop look.

"Time to buy. What needs fixing?" the shopkeeper wants to know. The tool (scale) and the solution (rows of dried roots).

The high brow stuff, all packaged up and behind glass.


Looking like an apothecary treat. The scale army, ready for work.

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