What it is
Fried sweet potato puff (番薯椪, also written 蕃薯椪 or 地瓜椪) looks like an oversized version of the sweet potato balls (地瓜球) sold at night markets, with a sweet filling inside a crisp shell. It is often sold by stalls that specialise in white sugar cakes (白糖粿), twists of glutinous rice dough fried and rolled in sugar.
How it is made
The puffs are deep-fried and sold hot. Fillings vary from stall to stall. One Tainan vendor uses a sweet filling flavoured with ginger juice, while a Kaohsiung stall makes a version whose filling bursts out when bitten.
How to eat it
It is an afternoon snack, bought hot and usually paired with white sugar cakes. In Kaohsiung a stop at a sugar cake stall counts as a Taiwanese-style afternoon tea.
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Lin Family (林家白糖粿番薯椪) on Guohua Street in West Central District sells the puffs with a ginger-juice filling, next to white sugar cakes dusted with sugar and peanut powder.
- Kaohsiung
- Cheng Pai (正牌白糖粿) in Lingya is run by two brothers who carry on their mother's recipes. White sugar cakes are its main draw, and its sweet potato puffs come with a runny filling. Kaohsiung sugar cakes tend to be flat, where Tainan's are usually strips.
