Sweet Potato Ball in Jiufen
The crowds have thinned considerably as night fell in Jiufen. I guess not a lot of people stay and only come here as part of a day trip. It is certainly very doable as a day trip since I did Jiufen and Shifen in a day. The shops at the far end of Jiufen Old Street have already closed while the ones near the main entrance are still up and about. Not a surprised since not a lot of people would be making their way to the end of the old street at night. There are still a number of snack stalls open here and I was looking for a snack before I leave for Taipei.
Sweet Potato Ball Shop in Jiufen
One of the specialties of Jiufen is sweet potato balls. Now, sweet potatoes haven never been at the top of my list when it comes to food. I always felt that someone stealthily replace my potatoes with this sweet potato. A lot of people like sweet potato and I notice that it seems to be getting quite popular these days. Jiufen Sweet Potato can be bought anywhere here. I found a shop which specializes in it. And I got myself a bowlful. The balls are basically colorful and chewy balls of flour. I found out that it is actually a mixture of different root crops – sweet potato and yam. The taste is not that disagreeable. The balls come in water and it helps swallow the thing since they can be a bit sticky. There wasn’t any filling in them and I think it would have been nice to have them with some sesame seed filling. Sweet potato balls can be bought in Taipei as well, but it is probably nice to have it here if you have the chance.
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