Dishes
Mixed meatball soup
綜合丸湯
Also called: 貢丸湯 · 魚丸湯 · gongwan soup
Tainan rice canteens serve this clear broth of assorted pork and fish balls as their standard soup.
Photo: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Mingwangx at Chinese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0What it is
Clear soup with several kinds of ball in it, usually springy pork balls (gongwan) and fish balls. Pork balls are most often eaten this way, in soup.
Where it comes from
Gongwan takes its Taiwanese name, kòng-uân, from 摃, 'to pound', because the meat is beaten rather than minced. Hsinchu is the best-known gongwan town, mostly because its makers mechanised production.
How it is made
For gongwan, fresh, still-warm pork is pounded with sticks or by machine into a paste, shaped and cooked. Fish balls are made from fish paste, and in Tainan the fish is often milkfish.
How to eat it
At a Tainan rice canteen (fan zhuo), this is the soup that goes with rice and small side dishes.
In Tainan
Fu Tai Table Third Generation in Tainan makes its assorted balls in-house every day, and Michelin praises their bouncy texture.
Where to eat it in Tainan
Sources