1930 photo of Taiwanese 'Bistro' 煮賣店

 I finally worked out how this is 'staged'. I said 'staged' because Japanese recorded their colonial researches on photos and postcards. And often there are hints about location, peoples and generally how life could be like and more importantly what contributions Japanese honored themselves bringing to the colonials. 

My friend Michael Turton posted the photo on FB and generated a good amount of interests. Checked and looked closer  and - 

It's more than a stall, it's a 'bistro' in three compartments offering foods cooked from 3 methods - From left to right - deep fried, stew (煮) (and often refers to 'things in a pot'), and grilled. 

Knowing the three compartments make it easier to work out what food he could be serving.

Left (deep- fried) - rolls wrapped in tofu skin (filling could be oyster or pork). The round thing could be fish cakes (what Taiwanese call tempura), purely judging by the color, deep fried before served. 

Middle (Stew - 'things in a pot') - a mixture of offal (pig), soy bean food, seasonal vegetables - looks like chunks of bamboo shoot and aubergine (which could be hint of location and timing), condiments and sauces.

Right - (grilled) - Taiwanese sausage (Taiwanese black pig and local flavoring)

As for the caption - '煮賣' the term may have an origin from 1700s '煮賣茶屋'. Developed today called '居酒屋' Izakaya.

Someone suggested the deep fried rounds are cakes 炸粿 (bite size snacks commonly made from rice). Not too sure, the round deep-fried oyster cake famous in Tainan, for example, is coated in batter and messy. And if rice cakes , they don't normally come in round shape because they were traditionally cooked in wooden rectangular steamer.

In addition, talking about 'rice snack' - a fine description of 'rice cake' 粿 process HERE.