Friday, August 15, 2008

dessert/chinese: i strongly recommend LITTLE SOUTH GATE again



LITTLE SOUTH GATE
or XIAO NAN MEN
at 101 Mall
45 ShihFu Rd., B1

$

Kid friendliness: try keeping your kids away from this sweet treat! you probably have to get them their own, or at least their own spoon.

Visit reviewed:
Previously reviewed: 2/18/2006

Can you believe that before Little South Gate offered shaved ice that there wasn't really any decent place to find shaved ice in the area? That's probably why you'll usually find a line snaking around the counter of people waiting for their cold desserts in the air conditioned basement of the Taipei 101 Mall (or whatever mall you might spot this chain) before they head out to the hot weather. Of course there are other hole in the walls that you can find it cheaper (and possibly better), but this will more than satisfy your cravings while you are shopping/showing around your friends/eating lunch while fighting off people who want your seats on the weekend crowds without leaving the mall.

It's a summertime special that they've recently started offering along with their do hwa, but at higher prices (and profit?) maybe they'll keep it on permanently after all the Love Boat kids and summer tourists leave town.

Lots of options but I usually get the choose-your-own-4-toppings for NT$70 plus a big squirt of condensed milk (NT$5). My usual would be feng yuan or boba tapioca pearls, peanuts, aiyu yellow jelly, and tang yuan or rice balls. My friend got grass jelly with hers. Other toppings to choose from include red bean, green bean and assorted jellies. (But don't expect to find any mango or other fruits here!)

Figure out what you want while you are waiting in line or the servers will bristle at your slowness with all the people waiting behind you. Point at the pictures on the wall or at the stuff in the containers. A few seconds of the whirring of the ice machine and you'll get to dig in.

I would eat this every other day if I could.

Other locations include:

Breeze Mall
Foodcourt, B1
No.39, Fuxing S. Road. Sec 1

ESLITE Mall (XIN YI STORE)
Food Court, B2
11, SongGao Road
(02) 8789-3388

Breeze at Taipei Main Station
3, BeiPing W Rd, 2F
(02) 6632-8999

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joanh, I try to order shave ice in San Francisco from a Double Rainbow store. Asking with just favor syrups like mango, strawberry, ect. Clerk said" It sound very boring to me". I from Hawaii that only kind of shave ice I knew.

They serve Taiwanese style types. Wrong places to get it.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Joanh check out Tasty Island blog. To see Islands style shave ice.

Shelly

Sera said...

Hey Joanh, I'm flying for Pittsburgh the morning of the 23rd so I have less than a week left in Taiwan. E-mail me to let me know if you have any time to meet up~ I'm free most days after 1:20pm

joanh said...

anonymous: yeah Taiwanese shaved ice is totally different than Hawaiian style shaved ice. Did you try to order Hawaiian style in Taipei? I think it would not be easy to find.

shelly: cool thanks.

sera: sorry we missed each other! are you going to keep food blogging in pittsburgh?

Anonymous said...

Joanh, No it San Francisco. You would think they got simple shave ice with syrups on it like snow cone call sometime. The worker, Chinese thought it very boring and plain.

I guess she never had a Hawaiian style shave ice before.
Justin

Anonymous said...

Love boat? Wait, are you of Taiwanese descent?

Anonymous said...

Man when I went to get a table with my friend on a weekend after we watched Red Cliff, we literally had to hawk at a table and sit down right after the couple JUST finished their food. It was insane!

Anonymous said...

haha love boat kids! love it. it's so true. Actually, when i was at 101 on the weekends trying to get myself some XiaoNanMen, i was fighting with all the mainland chinese weekend tourists to get a spot in line... but i kept getting cut in line and couldn't seem to get to the counter to order my shaved ice.

:)