The outer skin of the meatball is fried to a crispy texture, with soft and tender chunks of meat and mushrooms inside, complemented by a thick and slightly sweet sauce, making for quite a nice texture. The smaller meatballs are even more popular, as customers say that even when taken out, the skin still remains crispy. The spare rib soup is fairly standard, with a stronger coating of spare rib powder.
The meatball shop has a constant flow of customers. There is plenty of seating for dining in, but tables often need to be combined, creating a lively dining atmosphere.
Customers can place takeout orders in advance by phone. There is often a need to queue in-store, so it's recommended to arrive early to avoid long waits. The store is also happy to assist customers in changing to dine in. The queuing layout is well planned, and the serving speed for dine-in is fast.
【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.
I haven't eaten Ah San in a long time.
Today I'm in Changhua, and I finally have the chance to eat it.
Since it was close to closing time, I called ahead to order takeout.
But when I got there, I found out that there were still seats available for dining in.
I immediately asked the staff if we could change to dining in.
Once I took a bite,
it was just like I remembered—super crispy skin!!
Moreover, today it was already packed in a takeout bowl,
yet it was still very crispy.
It was worth my special trip to buy it.
After so many years, it’s still awesome!
I ordered the small meatball for $55.
Fried meatballs with crispy and soft skin
Large pieces of meat stuffed inside
After trying the big and small pills today
I really don’t think it’s necessary to order the big ones with scallops.
Small ones taste better
Bone marrow soup is pretty good. Bone marrow and egg drop.
The downside is that parking is really difficult.
But all the famous meatball restaurants in Changhua seem to be like this.
There will be people queuing up at 10 o'clock
If you want to go there next time, you really have to come early otherwise the queue will be really long.
This is a well-known meatball shop in Changhua City. You can tell from the constant flow of people taking out it that it is very popular among locals!
You can call ahead to order takeout!
There are a lot of places for internal use, but tables often need to be shared!
-Meatballs-Small-55-One serving is a large one. The outer skin of the meatballs will be crispy, and the texture of Q inside is quite good! The sauce is thick and sweet, and has the aroma of minced garlic. The sauce is good. The filling is soft and tender meat, as well as a mushroom and half a hard-boiled egg. The whole thing is to eat the meatballs with the sauce to make them delicious!
The hot sauce on the side doesn’t look spicy but tastes quite spicy! It can enhance the flavor!