Taiwanese Sausage with Sticky Rice

Sausage with sticky rice, da chang bao xiao chang, literally big intestine wrapping small intestine, is the most theatrical of Taiwan's night-market inventions, a snack in which a grilled pork sausage is wrapped inside a larger grilled sticky-rice sausage, the whole dressed like a hot dog and eaten from a stick. The dish emerged in the night markets of central and southern Taiwan in the 1990s, vendors taking the two traditional Taiwanese sausages, the savoury pork and the glutinous-rice, both originally stuffed in pig intestines, and combining them into a single theatrical snack. The sticky-rice sausage is grilled until its skin crisps and splits, the inside soft and glutinous, then a grilled pork sausage is laid in the split, and the whole is dressed with raw garlic, pickled mustard greens, chili sauce, sweet soy and sometimes peanut-sugar powder, the layering of toppings part of the show. The name comes from the original casings, both sausages historically stuffed in intestine, the rice-sausage being the big intestine wrapping the pork small intestine, though modern versions often use synthetic casings. Sold from night-market stalls across Taiwan, the snack is the must-photograph food of a night-market visit, the wrapping and dressing a street theatre, and the combination of crisp glutinous rice, juicy pork sausage and the sharp toppings is uniquely Taiwanese.

A crisp, charred glutinous-rice casing splitting to a juicy grilled pork sausage, layered with raw garlic, sour pickled greens, chili and sweet soy, each bite a riot of textures and flavours. Eaten from a stick, hot, messy, theatrical; the most fun of night-market snacks.

The snack is a combination of two pre-made grilled sausages and a layer of toppings. The glutinous-rice sausage, a thick Taiwanese sausage of glutinous rice stuffed in a casing, is grilled over charcoal until the casing chars and crisps and the inside softens, then split lengthwise to open like a hot-dog bun. A Taiwanese pork sausage, the sweet, slightly pink, coarsely-ground pork sausage that is the island's signature grill, is grilled alongside until its skin crisps and the fat renders, then laid into the split rice sausage. The whole is dressed to order with raw garlic paste, chopped pickled mustard greens for sour crunch, chili sauce, sweet soy, and sometimes peanut-sugar powder, the toppings layered for the diner to choose, the garlic being essential to cut the richness. Eaten from a bamboo stick, the contrast of the crisp glutinous rice casing, the juicy pork sausage, and the sharp sour-salty-garlicky toppings is the dish. The grilling of both sausages over charcoal gives the smoke, and the splitting and dressing is done to order so the rice casing stays crisp.