Taro ball () is a traditional Taiwanese cuisine dessert made of

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

. It can be found in almost every part of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

and other parts of the world selling Taiwanese desserts, among which

Jiufen Jiufen, also spelled Jioufen or Chiufen (), is a seaside mountain area in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Jiufen Old Street is a narrow, winding alleyway with shops, teahouses, and restaurants that offers tourists a view of traditional ...

's taro ball is said to be the most famous. The taro balls can be made by mixing mashed taro with

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

and

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

flour or

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

flour, making the taro balls more springy or softer respectively. The colour of mashed taro makes the dessert appear crystal purple or grey. The mashed taro can be replaced by mashed sweet potato or ground

mung bean The mung bean or green gram (''Vigna radiata'') is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract Green Mung Bean Extract Powder Phaseolus aureus Roxb Vigna radiata L R Wilczek. MDidea-Extracts P ...

and becomes the yellow sweet potato ball () or the green mung bean ball (). The dessert can be served with

syrup In cooking, syrup (less commonly sirup; from ; , beverage, wine and ) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a Solution (chemistry), solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but ...

either icy or hot. It is also very common to use taro balls and sweet potato balls to top other Taiwanese desserts like

douhua Douhua () is a Chinese sweet or savoury snack made with silken tofu. It is also referred to as doufuhua (), doufunao (; "tofu brains") in northern China, tofu pudding, and soybean pudding. History Tofu is thought to have originated in ancie ...

tshuah-ping ''Chhoah-peng'' (Taiwanese Hokkien: 礤冰 or 剉冰; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ''chhoah-peng'') or ''Tsua bing'', also known as ''Baobing'' () in Mandarin, is a shaved ice dessert introduced to Taiwan under Japanese rule, and then spread from Taiwan to Gr ...

References

Taiwanese desserts

Ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

Taiwanese confectionery {{Taiwan-cuisine-stub

See also

References