Or in this case the food actually is the tree itself. What you are looking at are bamboo shoots. They are essentially baby bamboo trees. In Taiwan and most parts of asia, they are food. They are taken out of the ground, and the skin is peeled off and the hard white inside is what is eaten.
First you slice it very very very thin and boil it a lot. Then you put it as a side dish choice at your restaurant where foreigners actively avoid choosing it cause it tastes like what it is....eating a tree.
You can find these everywhere in the city, but especially parks and mountain trails. And to my knowledge you are more than welcome to take them, but it's incredible hard work, and they are super cheap in the store.
But Taipei does have a few other natural foods growing in public parks and mountain trails. Right behind one of my previous apartments was a hill full of guava trees, that anybody was free to take from. It's also easy to come across pomelo trees. I also have a picture of two ladies in a park picking up loquats that have fallen off the trees. I'm guessing it's ok to take them if they have fallen off.
I have yet to eat to pick any fruit from a park or mountain side, but I guess in this economy it's good to know the option is there.
