阿三肉圓

【Foodholic Niko @ Changhua】

I specifically made a quick trip to Changhua just for this meatball!

Ever since I had Ah San’s meatball many years ago, I've been thinking about when I could eat it again, especially since that time I took it to go and it tasted so good even cold. It made me eager to try it fresh, straight out of the pot.

In Taiwan, meatballs come in different styles, steamed or fried, and I definitely belong to the fried camp!

In Changhua, there are two famous fried meatball places: Ah San Meatball and Beimenkou Meatball. Because of my ongoing obsession with Ah San Meatball, after much deliberation, I ultimately chose to go there.

Ah San Meatball is a well-known restaurant, so it’s not surprising that there’s a line. I think their queue system is very well organized, separating takeout and dine-in customers. We arrived at around 11 AM on Sunday, and there weren’t too many people in either line. We only waited about 10 minutes for a dine-in table, and the food didn’t take long to come out either.

The meatballs come in small ($55) and large ($110), with the difference being that the large comes with added scallops. I only ordered the small. The filling mainly consists of pork, shiitake mushrooms, and duck eggs, and it's well-seasoned. The most impressive part is the outer skin; it’s incredibly crispy. When you tap the skin with a fork, you can actually hear the crunch. Even after soaking in sauce for a while, it still retains its crispiness, which is truly amazing!

I also ordered a bowl of pork rib soup for $55. It’s a small bowl, but they give a good amount of pork ribs; however, it’s more like rib fritters, which are deep-fried and have quite a heavy batter, so I felt there wasn’t much meat. It’s pretty standard. Besides the ribs, the soup contains two pieces of taro, which I don’t dare touch, so I just picked those out directly.