Sesame oil chicken, beef, pig knuckle — not exactly the flavors to expect at an ice cream shop, let alone one that’s been in business since 1947.
Yet these are a few of the long-standing choices on the menu at Snow King (雪王), located near Zhongshan Hall (中山堂) in Ximending (西門町). The shop serves more than 70 flavors of fresh homemade ice cream (priced between NT$60 and NT$120 per scoop), which range from the classic to the bizarre.
At Snow King you get “the tastes that Taiwanese know,” says 28-year-old Kao Ching-feng (高慶豐), who recently took over as the third-generation owner of the shop. “Local flavors” and “old-fashioned style” keep customers and tourists coming for repeat visits, he says.
The regulars come for the house specialties, red bean and watermelon, while the tourists, mainly from Japan and Hong Kong, often go for the exotic flavors, according to Kao. He says the Japanese prefer lychee and peach; Hong Kongers like curry and wasabi.
The unusual flavors are a source of pride for Snow King. All of the shop’s recipes, now a family secret, were conceived by Kao’s grandfather, Kao Jih-hsing (高日星), who founded the business on savings from selling ice cream on the streets of Taipei.
“He liked to challenge himself,” says Kao Ching-feng of his grandfather, who would spend years tweaking a flavor to his satisfaction. One of the elder Kao’s more notable challenges: accommodating his older, diabetic customers. He came up with a selection of non-sugared, savory ice creams, which include tofu (NT$70) and rousong (dried meat flakes, 肉鬆), which remains a popular choice among customers, says Kao Ching-feng.
The elder Kao, 82, retired from running the shop 10 years ago and only visits occasionally, but his influence remains strong. Kao Ching-feng and his family continue to make all of Snow King’s ice cream with fresh, local produce. The wasabi is grown on Alishan (阿里山), the kaoliang liquor comes from Kinmen (金門), and savory flavors like the sesame oil chicken are cooked on the spot. Korean ginseng is the one exception to the shop’s exclusively Taiwanese ingredients.
In contrast to its daring menu, the store’s appearance is modest, with its open storefront marked only by a large freezer with the Chinese characters for “Snow King” (雪王) painted on the front. The shop looks slightly unkempt under the glare of fluorescent lighting, but it’s clean and quiet, save for the television at low volume in the back kitchen, the occasional clang of pots and pans, and the hum of a mixing machine.
The elder Kao also left his mark in the shop’s interior, which has changed little from 27 years ago, when they moved from their original location on Hankou Street (漢口街). Customers sit at sturdy, solid wood countertops and matching stools, which the elder Kao had made to order. The simple furniture takes customers back to the old days, says Kao Ching-feng.
One other thing hasn’t changed: making the ice cream remains a labor-intensive job. Kao Ching-feng says that particularly time-consuming flavors are Buddha’s head fruit, which has to be peeled bit by bit, and pig knuckle, which requires lengthy cooking times.
With the long hours and never-ending schedule — Snow King is open 365 days a year — Kao Ching-feng admits that running the shop gives him less freedom than his previous job in insurance, and cuts into his favorite past times, mountaineering and biking.
But he thinks about his grandfather. “[He] was very steadfast … he told me, ‘you must work hard to make more money,’” he said. “He gave me my values.”
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built