Meat Ball, also called Ba-wan (in Taiwanese), is a Taiwanese street food. It is normally a steamed bun-shaped translucent dough made of sweet potato starch at the outer layer. The stuffing varies widely in accordance with different regions in Taiwan, but basically consists of a mixture of pork, bamboo shoots and mushrooms.
It is believed that Ba-wan were first prepared in the Beidou township of Changhua County more than a century ago. In 1898, there were a heavy flood in the central Taiwan and the god sent the recipe in one’s dream to save the starvation. Since then, Ba-wan has developed and spread to different parts of Taiwan. The most known are Northern Taiwan style and Southern style; even within Changhua, there are two kinds of Ba-wan: North Changhua style and South Changhua style.
Regional differences separated in Northern Taiwan Style and Southern Taiwan Style. Northern Taiwan includes North Chunghua and the cities in the North of Chunghua; Southern Taiwan includes South Chunghua and the cities in the Southth of Chunghua. There are differences existed in the way Ba-wan is served on table as well – in the north Chunghua, it is usually cut open in a cross-shaped before serving, while the southern version is often left untouched. Let’s see how many kinds of Ba-wan you can find at every corner in Taiwan!
North Changhua style
Ingredients
- Outer Covering
- long grain rice flour
- sweet potato flour
- Filling
- dried black mushrooms
- pork tenderloin
- bamboo shoots
- Sauce (sweeter flavor)
- mashed garlic
- soy sauce
- peanut powder
How to cook?
- Steamed before Fried
Source by: https://food.ltn.com.tw/article/5240
Source by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJbV2TJiJKs
Shape
- Bowl-shaped
Source by: https://food.ltn.com.tw/article/5240
- Cut before serve (cross-shaped)
South Changhua style
Ingredients
- Outer Covering
- long grain rice flour
- sweet potato flour
- Filling
- pork tenderloin
- bamboo shoots
- Sauce (traditional Chinese medicine flavor)
- Chinese herbal medicine
- rice milk
How to cook?
- Steamed before Fried
Shape
- Gold ingot-shaped
Southern Taiwan style
Tainan
- Steamed
- Shrimps
Qishan (Kaohsiung)
- Pan-fried
- Braised Pork
Pingtung
- The first place to steam Ba-wan
- Steamed (no fried)
- Pork
Northern Taiwan style
Jiufen (New Taipei City)
- Jiufen speciality
- Steamed
- Crispy fried pork
WOW! Never know that Ba-wan could be this diverse (even being a local Taiwanese…) Ba-wan isn’t considered to be the most prestigious food in Taiwan, but it is the favorite among all social classes. Have you already tried any of them? Tell us which is your favorite, we are dying to know 🙂
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