※Song-De Ba-Wan⑧

When it comes to translating names of Taiwanese/Chinese food to English is always pain in the a**. It's hard enough to describe one kind of food to a person who has never encounter with, not to mention totally different form from other culture... However, can't blame one for trying, right?

Taiwanese meatball, some would call it meat ball, but it's nothing like Italian meat ball so to speak. Some would say "Fried Meat Dumpling", "Shrimp Dumpling", or "Fried/Steamed Round Dumpling with Ground Meat", WiKi is the best just simply call it "Ba-Wan". Ba-Wan actually is rendering phonetic value which is the pronunciation of Meat (Ba 肉) Ball (Wan 圓) in Taiwanese, so it's not even Chinese. In this case it makes prefect sense since it's Taiwanese Meatball and it comes from Taiwan.

In short, Ba-wan definitely is on my Top 5, and Song-De Ba-wan is the best of all.

Here is the Chinese and Japanese versions if you would like to relive the sensation again.

※一週最愛Favorite of the week


This place is easy to miss since it's hiding in Song-De traditional market(松德市場). The reason I have noticed it's because a super long line up in front of it during the weekends. Usually it opens from 11am to 3pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and the weekends, and it closes when everything sold out. That means during the weekends it closes around at 1pm or so since there are more people coming. The address of this place is No 1, Lane 615, Song-shan road(松山路615巷一號).


There is a night market near by (林口夜市). Usually the night market starts from 6pm to midnight.


As you can see the price has been increased many times since it opens like 10 years ago, but it doesn't lose its fans all over Taipei at all. Often to hear people say "I have grown up with it" while I am eating here.


It got great iced tea, goes perfectly with Ba-wan. Its Ba-wan looks small but the stuffing inside is incredibly rich. The skin of this Ba-wan is smooth and not sticky, and the self-made sauce tastes a bit sweet yet savory.

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