Have you ever found yourself walking around the Taipei Main Station area in need of some delicious shaved ice? Well, in steps Meet Desserts with some awesome snowflake shaved ice, mochi, and taro. Honestly, in the area, you won’t find much better. Read more to see what we ordered, and what I want to try out in future visits, too.
Table of Contents
So Meet Desserts being in the location that it is – near Taipei Main Station – may have you thinking that it’s in a cramped and busy area? Nope, weirdly. It’s on Yanping Road, just a few streets over from the main thoroughfare, on the way towards Ximen MRT. But, why should you choose this place for your fix of dessert when in the area?
Looking at this spread, it looks like the perfect place to get some soy milk pudding – 豆花 Dòu huā. And, while it does have 豆花 on the menu, I would strongly recommend that you go for some amazing ice, instead. Not only is the ice here that snowflake type of ice that melts in your mouth like its namesake, but it is flavoured, too – delicious!
Let’s go through what some of these offerings are. At the foreground you’ll see a mix of taro and sweet potato chewy sweet dumplings, assorted flavoured jelly, then further back you’ll see the black grass jelly that we all know and love. Next to that you’ll find some purple rice, and just behind that you’ll find both red and green beans, respectively. In the smaller squares, youll find peanut, adlay (a little like barley), some more jelly, then even more jelly varieties behind that. Honestly, it is a smorgasbord of everything sweet, chewy and delicious that Taiwanese has to offer.
The Menu at Meet Desserts
For more help on how to order breakfast, as well as other meals at restaurants, check out my post 'How to order like a pro' for some extra help.
So where you can 人氣推薦 (Rén qì tuī jiàn) this means Popular recommendations, so here you will find a list of different ice delicacies such as:
- Sweetened taro and red bean with mochi snowflake ice $110
- 蜜芋紅豆麻糬雪冰 – Mì yù hóng dòu má shǔ xuě bīng
- Sweetened taro and taro balls with mochi snowflake ice $110
- 蜜芋芋圓麻糬雪冰 – Mì yù yù yuán má shǔ xuě bīng
- Sweetened taro and tapioca balls with mochi snowflake ice $110
- 蜜芋珍珠麻糬雪冰 – Mì yù zhēn zhū má shǔ xuě bīng
The incredible thing about the ones above is that they all include this amazingly fragrant peanut powder, and also some condensed milk, too. Heaven in a bowl, right?
You’ll also see towards the bottom right that there is a section entitled 古早味冰品 (Gǔ zǎo wèi bīng pǐn) Traditional ice flavour combinations such as:
- Taro with milk flavoured ice
- 芋見牛奶刨冰 – Yù jiàn niú nǎi bào bīng $90
- Peanut with milk flavoured ice
- 花生牛奶刨冰 – huā shēng niú nǎi bào bīng $80
- Sweetened runner beans with milk flavoured ice
- 花豆牛奶刨冰 – huā dòu niú nǎi bào bīng $75
What we ordered
Sweetened taro and taro balls with mochi snowflake ice $110
蜜芋芋圓麻糬雪冰 – Mì yù yù yuán má shǔ xuě bīng
There’s just something magical about a bowl covered with peanut powder, with a mini mountain mound of the most perfectly shaved snowflake ice sticking out, surrounded by taro balls and taro coated with condensed milk. The intense flavour of peanut comes through and pairs with the wonderful milky snowflake ice that refreshes your entire mouth.
The taro balls are chewy, yet still retain some of the original flavour within, and the whole bowl just fits wonderfully together, with some cheeky mochi lurking underneath all of that peanut powder, too!
The ice here is flavoured with milk, which doesn’t sound that tasty, but it really is. I mean, it’s made even more tasty with the fineness that the ice is shaved to, which just instantly melts in your mouth.
Yes, that is a paste of taro that has honey and sugar added to it, coated with condensed milk, and shoved straight into my mouth. It’s good.
These little bundles of joy that you can barely see hiding underneath the peanut sugar are the little balls of delicately chewy and tasty mochi. Mochi is a dessert made from mixing glutinous rice flour with water, then pounded and mixed down for quite a considerable portion of time. The result is this sticky, chewy, savory yet sweet, treat.
The Bottom Line
Is it worth it? Yes, it’s totally worth going. Even if you’re not in the area, I feel like it’s totally worth the effort to get to.
Will I go again? Without a doubt. I go once every couple of months if I am not in the area. But, if I am in the area, I will invariably go – similar to if I am in Yongkang street or that area, I will always go to my favourite drinks shop in the city – Lime Organic.
What would I recommend? I get the same every time, and that’s the one pictured above. It’s too good not to get.