Mango Ice

Today I visited the famous YongKang street (永康街). The street is filled with incredible restaurants. It's also the place of the original Din Tai Fung. There are plenty of other incredible restaurants on the street although the prices here are a bit higher than the rest of Taipei. The defining element of YongKang Street is the Mango Ice shops. Mango ice at it's simplest involves thinly shaved ice and diced mangoes. Variations include adding other fruits such as kiwis or strawberries, mango ice-cream, mango sorbet, pudding, or even red-beans. Although the idea of shaved ice sounds rather tasteless it is far from bland. The mango and mango juices flavor the finely shaved ice quite well, thus creating a delicious and refreshing treat. I've been told at one point there was a mango-ice restaurant on YongKang Street that was so famous other people opened restaurants nearby in order to draw the costumers that wanted to have a meal before their mango-ice dessert. Much to the dismay of the restaurant owners the couple who owned the famous mango-ice restaurant got divorced. My friend jokes that the government in Taipei hired the best marriage counselor to try and get the couple back together. Although they haven't been re-united there are still plenty of quality mango-ice shops along YongKang Street.

Mango-ice with mango, kiwi, and strawberries 

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