Taiwan shaved ice dessert - Shilin Cold Balls

Multiple scoops of ice cream in one serving? Strawberry-flavored red balls?  A dessert house in Shilin Night Market has one of Taipei's coolest dessert.  It has shiny spheres that sparkle like a ruby gem.  Are your taste buds ready to try them?

The facade of the restaurant

The snow of Shilin District.  Welcome to the Handmade Snow Flower Ice (花藏雪手作雪氷)  restaurant.  A tiny paradise in the busiest night market of Taipei.  Blossoming with its sweet menu, it is slowly getting the attention of locals for its intriguing best-seller.  Meet the Xīguāniúnǎi liángqiú.  A mouth-watering shaved ice dessert that will ignite your senses.

I ordered a small bowl of the mysterious red balls dessert.

Ordering was so easy.  I just showed the staff the picture of the food that I want to eat and they immediately asked me to pay.  For a cheap price of NTD 150, I can enjoy the delicious “strawberry” flavored dessert that the store has to offer.   After giving them the money, they asked me to sit on an empty table and  I then waited for a few minutes.  

And my food has arrived!

Expectation vs reality.  On pictures, the shiny red balls looked so big, but when the food was delivered to my table I got a bit disappointed.   They weren't that large as I thought and their sizes can be likened to giant marbles.  I have also mistaken them to be shaved ice that had been shaped into spheres.   Well, looks can be deceiving but what is important is its flavor.  Will it pass the taste test?

Coupled with a tiny cup of condensed milk, customers can pour a cream of sweetness over the pink shaved ice and the red balls.  A food for the stomach and for the eyes as well, gazing at the flowing milk was like a work of art.   A masterpiece that I have also destroyed when my spoon grabbed some ice and put it in my mouth.

Suprise!  The pink shaved ice didn't taste like strawberries.  The red balls weren't also.  They were all made from watermelons.  Haha!  The red balls were actually the fleshy fruit shaped into spheres.   I was really fooled.  Their shiny appearance made me think that they were colored ice if they weren't the strawberry flavored ice cream that I was expecting for.   

Aside from the red balls and the pink shaved ice, there was also a slice of yellow watermelon in the dessert.

A healthy dessert for all.  For those who are conscious of their diets, the use of watermelon balls instead of real scoops of ice cream meant lower calories.  Also with the fruit's high water content, eating the red balls with the pink shaved ice will make anyone's stomach full.  Like any delicious dessert, customers will feel the final blow of sweetness when all of the ice melted and are collected at the bottom of the bowl.  The condensed milk plus the freshness of watermelons will surely take you to the deepest regions of outer space.

Before I left the place, I asked the staff about how they make the watermelon balls.  Their answer was just simple.  They use a spoon.  Haha!

Burp! My collection of gastronomic adventures in Taipei now got tastier with the addition of Shilin District's emerging red flavor.

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Shilin Handmade Snow Flower Ice (花藏雪手作雪氷) restaurant
address: No. 27, Dabei Road, Shilin District, Taipei City, 111
[Google Map]
Open: Everyday from 3:00 pm to 10:00 pm

How to get here:  MRT Shilin Station (Red Line) ->  Go to Exit 2 -> Walk 500 meters

My order: a small bowl of watermelon milk cool balls (西瓜牛奶涼球)
Price:  NTD 150
My rating: 5 out of 5 luomujie stars

Rapsa is a slang for the Filipino word "sarap" which means delicious. Delicious -> sarap -> "rapsa" (inverted syllable order). The Rapsa Edition of the "My Beloved Taipei" Travel Series will take readers to the tastiest and yummiest foods in Taipei. Get to know the best desserts and local delicacies that Taiwan's capital has to offer, through this subprogram of the luomujie blog.

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