金枝紅糟素肉圓 — Restaurant in New Taipei

You can find these types of gelatinous Taiwanese meat balls (oval shape) in a lot of places but this store has some unique ingredients you can’t find elsewhere. 紅麴 is a red yeast extract when gelatinous rice (also known as sweet rice) is fermented with jujube (a type of red dates) which they use, along with other herbs, to flavor the meat in these meatballs. Because of the fermentation, it is more nutritious than other similar kind of meatballs; and the other herbs give a slight subtle flavor.

There is a vegetarian “meatball” version in the first store closer to the entrance; the second store more into the shopping area is the original store. I like the tables and chairs of the original store which is actually made of Hinoki (檜木), a rare type of hardwood found in Taiwan which has a very nice fragrance if contacted with water.

Vegetarian culture is very sophisticated in Taiwan. A lot of the “meat” options for vegetarians are often made with soy and the textures can be unbelievably close to the actual meat version.

The round kind (vs oval) of balls are of a large variety, with squid, pork, red yeast with sea bass, bamboo charcoal with ham, are often presented in soup. You can hardly find the last 3 options, especially the red yeast sea bass which is truly unique of this store.

Our family loves this place! Hope you can come to try these yummy treats in this 30-year old restaurant which has preserved the unique taste...

金枝紅糟素肉圓 sells vegetarian version of Taiwanese glutinous rice mock "meatballs" with red yeast and noodles fillings. We had the Assorted Balls Soup (五味綜合丸湯) which contains a mixture of tender and flavourful balls of cuttlefish, fish and other flavours, some even have minced pork meat fillings (fuzhou fishballs). The soup itself is light and refreshing, without being overly salty. Nice view if you seat near the window. Order using self service kiosk, then pass receipt to have you order prepared and...

This was a weird food. You'll see the meat version in a few locations as you walk through Jiufen and we were happy to find a vegetarian version to try.

The Meatball was good, but an interesting challenge to eat. The Texture of the 'wrapper' is very unique, as is the liquid it comes with.

Very worth trying for less than two dollars. Even if you aren't vegetarian it might be worth just grabbing one of these to compare to the...