The recently opened Meet Fresh (鮮芋仙) franchise specializes in shaved iced, jelly and tofu desserts and drinks that it claims follow Sinetic medical ideas of “hot” and “cold” foods.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, some foods are “cold” and others are “hot.” This concept is not related to temperature per se but to imbalances different kinds of food create — or remedy — in the body.
Meet Fresh’s herb jelly combo (NT$50, 鮮芋仙招牌), for example, is considered to be “cold,” which in general means that it is a good dish to eat during the summer, unless you are elderly or have a cold.
PHOTO: NOAH BUCHAN, TAIPEI TIMES
The herb jelly combo layers homemade herb jelly with shaved ice, balls made from taro flour and condensed milk.
To make the dessert, herbs are boiled for at least 24 hours and then, as they cool, solidify into a jelly. Syrup is dabbled on top and the result is served in a ceramic bowl.
The specialty about this dessert, as with most of the desserts at Meet Fresh, is the combination of textures in your mouth: crunchy ice, smooth jelly, chewy taro balls.
Other desserts served at Meet Fresh include taro with milk shaved ice (NT$60, 芋頭牛奶冰), a mound of ice toped with large chunks of the purple tuber. The taro is fried with brown sugar and then steamed for at least two hours, making it sweet and crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.
The eight-piece rice dumplings (NT$50, 綜合日式Q麻糬) come in four different flavors: herb, pomelo, brown sugar and original. These “dumplings” are soft and chewy and are topped with syrup that tastes of caramel. The citrusy pomelo was especially flavorful.
Less remarkable were the homemade tofu pudding with taro balls (NT$40, 芋圓豆花), which were a tad on the bland side compared to the other desserts.
Meet Fresh also has a variety of shaved-ice fresh fruit desserts (pineapple, strawberry and mango, NT$40 to NT$130).
The desserts at Meet Fresh are generally cheaper than their competitors but don’t suffer for quality as a result.
May 26 to June 1 When the Qing Dynasty first took control over many parts of Taiwan in 1684, it roughly continued the Kingdom of Tungning’s administrative borders (see below), setting up one prefecture and three counties. The actual area of control covered today’s Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung. The administrative center was in Taiwan Prefecture, in today’s Tainan. But as Han settlement expanded and due to rebellions and other international incidents, the administrative units became more complex. By the time Taiwan became a province of the Qing in 1887, there were three prefectures, eleven counties, three subprefectures and one directly-administered prefecture, with
It’s an enormous dome of colorful glass, something between the Sistine Chapel and a Marc Chagall fresco. And yet, it’s just a subway station. Formosa Boulevard is the heart of Kaohsiung’s mass transit system. In metro terms, it’s modest: the only transfer station in a network with just two lines. But it’s a landmark nonetheless: a civic space that serves as much more than a point of transit. On a hot Sunday, the corridors and vast halls are filled with a market selling everything from second-hand clothes to toys and house decorations. It’s just one of the many events the station hosts,
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan.
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world
RSS