Taiwanese shave ice with Taro balls
Welcome back to my journey of shave ice tasting - today, we eat Taiwanese Shave ice with Taro balls. This is a Taiwanese dessert shop called "meet fresh". It features handmade taro balls made from fresh ingredients. Rumor has it that the taro balls are directly shipped from Taiwan! I ordered the almond shave ice. But they ran out of the almond jelly, so I was given mango jelly pudding instead. In addition to the taro balls (they are the light purples balls in my picture), I have sweet potato balls, mochi (rice cake) sticks, vanilla ice cream, and of course shave ice with drizzled condensed milk. It is my personal belief that condensed milk makes everything it touches better!
The ice texture is consistent with traditional Taiwanese shave ice. It is somewhere in between fine snow like ice and crushed ice. So the ice is somewhat crunchy. Because of that, the flavor of the condensed milk and the toppings stay more on top of the shave ice, unless you stir it up yourself. My only complaint is that you'll get some part of the ice that's not flavored at all, so it's rather plain and really cold! However, other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed my shave ice. The portion is pretty big, it feeds two adults no problem. The aesthetics are adequate. I feel like it's not as photogenic as the rainbow colored Hawaiian shave ice, but it has its own beauties.
You can take the shave ice to go in a paper cup. I've done it before, but I prefer to eat in at the store because the mixture tends to get all muddled up when it's in a to-go container.
Inspired by this shave ice, I love the idea of putting taro toppings on the shave ice. It serves as a very good balance between the ice and the light flavors of the taro that's very grounded, and natural. For your shave ice, try the Taro toppings here, and also red beans toppings are equally delicious! If you are feeling adventurous, try Li Hing Mui (salted plum), and coconut flakes here. Hope you guys enjoyed, and until next time, stay cool and eat a shave ice.