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Top tasty snacks to try in Taiwan

The real delicious food is not only the food delicious for us when we eat it, but the food with a long stretch of memories for us. It is the home for some people; it is a new journey for some people; also it is a brief encounter for other people. Today let's go to see Taiwan food and know some stories behind them.

1. Sausage wrapped in glutinous rice

Average price: 10 yuan

Places: Taipei and Taichung

When Zhao Yanjun, 22, a chemistry major at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, looks back to her exchange days at Tunghai University in Taiwan, the first thing she remembers is sausage wrapped in glutinous rice. Just as the name suggests, it’s a carb-loaded rice mixture wrapped around a baked sausage. “The baked sausage looks oily, but doesn’t taste greasy, and the rice is soft with a crispyskin,” Zhao says. Among the different flavors, which include spicy, black pepper and wasabi, Zhao recommends the wasabi flavor. “It’s a little strange at first, but it’s very refreshing.”

2. Coffin burger
Average price: 13 yuan

Places: Tainan city

The coffin burger is Chang Tien-chien’s (张天见) favorite snack. The 19-year-old boy grew up in Kaohsiung and is a chemical engineering major at Tsinghua University now. Just like its unusual name, it is an innovative and unique dish. A loaf of thick, deep-fried bread is cut open at the top like a box. Then it is filled with a stew of pork, shrimp and intestines. The toppings include chopped potatoes, carrots and corn. “The meat is quite greasy, but in combination with the fried, dry bread it makes for a refreshing meal,” Chang says.

3. Taiwanese meatballs

Average price: 6 yuan

Places: Central Taiwan

When it comes to Taiwanese meatballs, Tsai Zhang-yu (蔡宗余)can’t hide his pride and excitement, because it’s what the 19-year-old’s hometown, Changhua, is best known for. The dish is a fried ball of minced pork wrapped inside a translucent, glutinous shell made of rice and sweet potato flour. Inside the meatball is a mixture of bamboo shoots and mushrooms, and the whole snack is served with a sweet chilisauce. “When it’s cut into pieces, the meat juices flow out and mix with the sweet chili sauce. It tastes great,” Tsai says.

4. Mochi
Average price: 20 yuan

Places: All over Taiwan

A fascinating sunset on the docks and tasty mochi — the memory is still fresh for Che Yujia, 23, a human resources management major at Renmin University of China. In 2012, she went to Taiwan to attend a summer school. One day, on the way back to her hotel after watching the sunset in New Taipei City with her friends, Che tried the snack for the first time. “We ordered two kinds of mochi. One was cold and without any soup. It was a soft mochi wrapped in peanut powder and had a refreshing taste,” Che says. “The other was a hot mochi drenched in a lightly sweetened red bean soup. It was a very satisfying meal.”