Ice Monster (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★☆☆

Three days into our Taipei trip and about 6 to 8 French desserts later (I kind of lost track already!), it's finally time for us to take on some local desserts. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Chinese desserts, especially dessert soup, or tong sui (糖水) as we often called it so I decided to bring the family to Ice Monster at Breeze Song Gao (微風松高) to satisfy all our sweet teeth.



Ice Monster specializes in all kinds of Taiwanese shaved ice, with different colors and flavors.



They also have a small corner dedicated for their own gelato and ice-cream bars.



Bubble Milk Tea Sensation (珍珠奶茶綿花甜) (NT180) - There's no way we're going to a place called Ice Monster without trying one of their signature shaved ice. This one is an interesting crossover between Taiwanese shaved ice and bubble milk tea. The shaved ice was full of bubble milk tea flavors and the bubbles were served on the side. Very refreshing and it's almost like you're scooping spoonfuls of frozen milk tea into your mouth. What an unique experience!



Rye Beer Sorbet with Pop Rocks Candy (黑麥啤酒跳跳糖雪酪) (NT180) - Here we have a large scoop of rye beer sorbet sitting on top of what I originally thought was grass jelly (涼粉) but those jelly turned out to be a little rye beer flavored as well. Decent but a bit one-dimensional.



Peanut soup (宜蘭花生湯) (NT90) - Okay, this was what I came here for in the first place. A nice bowl of warm peanut soup. This was seriously good. The soup itself was not nearly as rich as our Cantonese version but they made up for it with tons of poached peanuts and glutinous rice dumplings (with different flavors too!). Very nice.



Hakka rice cake / Mochi (客家麻糬) (NT100) - Some mochi with crushed peanuts. Not bad.



Now that we've got our Chinese desserts out of the way, it's time for our high anticipated hot pot dinner!




Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$
Address: No. 16, Song Gao Road, Xin-Yi District, Taipei, Taiwan
Closest Metro Station: City Hall
Tel: +886 2-2722-9776
Website: www.ice-monster.com