Wednesday, September 08, 2010

snapshot/not taipei: HSINCHU SHAVED ICE



Sometimes I get emails asking where to eat in cities other than Taipei, and I'm sad to say that I'm pretty unhelpful in those areas. I don't often venture outside the city and when I do, it's with relatives that know where they are going and I don't get a chance to look at street signs or understand where we are going. I'm sure that experience is familiar to many of you- when you travel with relatives, sometimes you don't even get to see the menu (or if you do, I'm not understanding it because it's all in Chinese) or pay the bill.



Anyways- I didn't want to let that stop me from sharing some of the places I've eaten at outside of Taipei and also use it as a chance to ask those of you reading who live in these cities/areas to share some of your favorite places (and addresses/phone numbers) for people who might be looking for information online in English for those cities!

So in this case- Hsinchu!

Didn't have much time to explore since we were coming after a meal, but of course if I see shaved ice, we're going to eat shaved ice! This place had a huge sign near a busy area of food stalls and on a hot day, a lot of customers. Mango shaved ice (NT$120) is always one of the more expensive things on the menu, but the serving was big. The ice melted quickly in the early summer heat and it tasted a bit like the mango was soaked in a syrup which made it overly sweet.



So any readers from Hsinchu or visited there before- where should I go the next time I'm hungry in Hsinchu?

3 comments:

sra said...

Hi Joanh! Wanted to let you know that I discovered your blog preparing for my Taipei visit about two weeks ago - it told me what to look out for, and I came away with some great pix which I've put on my blog.

joanh said...

sra: thanks so muchf or your comment! hope you had a great visit!

S.O.F.A.T. (Stories of Food and Travel) Blog said...

hi joanh, I've been reading your blog for a while now, but this post on Hsinchu prompted me to finally comment! next time you are in Hsinchu you should definitely check out City God Temple (cheng huang miao). there's a BUNCH of food vendors with some of the best meat balls (bah wuan) and rice noodles (mi fen) in all of Taiwan. they also have some really good 'four divinity soup' (si shen tang) and awesome shaved ice. happy eating! btw, my blog is http://sofatblog.blogspot.com if you're interested, and my profile is here: http://taiwaneseamerican.org/100people/michael-lin

:)