What it is
Sweet potato balls (地瓜球) are a night market snack sold hot by the bag. Each ball is golden outside and mostly hollow inside, with a thin shell that is crisp at first bite, then chewy. Plum powder (梅子粉), a sweet and sour seasoning, is the usual dusting. 'QQ' in some of their names is Taiwanese slang for a springy, chewy bite.
Where it came from
The usual origin story is a legend. A retired man is said to have grown sweet potatoes on the riverbank under Zhongzheng Bridge (中正橋) in New Taipei. When workers on a government riverbank project dug up his plot by accident, he fried the potatoes rather than waste them and sold them at a night market. Later refinements are said to have produced the hollow, chewy ball sold today.
How it is made
Peeled sweet potato is steamed and mixed while still hot with tapioca starch (樹薯粉). Some cooks add glutinous rice flour, sweet potato starch or potato starch, and each shop keeps its own ratio. The dough is rolled into small balls and fried. As they cook, the vendor presses them again and again with a slotted ladle, which drives out oil and lets air in. Heat makes the starch swell and cooling makes it shrink, and repeated cycles leave the balls larger and hollow. Oil temperature decides how far they puff and how crisp they get.
How to eat it
They are eaten hot from the bag at night markets. Plum powder is the classic seasoning, and some people prefer condensed milk or chocolate powder. Fans tend to prize very hollow balls that stay chewy once cold, and some dismiss filled versions outright.
Around Taiwan
- Kaohsiung
- In southern Taiwan, especially Kaohsiung, the usual name is QQ eggs (QQ蛋). The northern sweet potato ball is lighter and hollow with a crunchy shell, while the QQ egg is denser and chewier, closer to mochi.
- North
- The north, including New Taipei and Taoyuan, mostly says sweet potato balls (地瓜球); the Taiwanese name is han-chî-kiû (番薯球). At the entrance to Shezi Night Market in Taipei, one stall has traded for more than 30 years, rolling each ball by hand and pressing it with a slotted ladle.
- Central
- Yunlin County calls the snack 啾啾蛋, and some Taichung vendors sell it under a blended name, QQ sweet potato balls (QQ地瓜球).
