When I think of going to a restaurant with a name like ‘Meet Fresh’, I imagine myself going into a salad bar like Kapai where everything is green and red and purple, and a Greek salad and Winter Warrior Juice are the Choices du Jour, so what a silly name it is for a Asian style dessert joint where nothing is truly fresh. Now, don’t get me wrong, Meet Fresh is a popular shaved iced franchise from my native country, Taiwan. I was over the moon with joy when I heard that Meet Fresh is coming to Wellington, which means that I don’t have to make a 30 minute trek down George Street in Sydney to get my fix in China Town every time I am there.
In a particularly pleasant evening in mid-May, my family of four ventured to the top of Courtney Place for some dessert, after each devouring a 500g bone-in rib eye steak. I was pleased to see that Meet Fresh was well patroned and unlike last time I was there, there were actually a few non-Chinese people in it. It is challenging enough to have a restaurant that only sells dessert, the market is exponentially smaller when the main items on the menu are things like ‘Grass Jelly with Red Beans and Tapioca Balls’, ‘Tofu with Peanuts and Chewy Taro Balls’. Yum, these are things that I grew up with.
When I was working at the New Zealand Law Society, a caucasian colleague of mine had a teenage son who loves all things jelly. They were delighted when they found a can of grass jelly in an Asian grocery store and later on described the experience to me as ‘eating tar’.
The funny thing is that I can totally relate to their experience. But they were doing it wrong. It is like having a whiff of fish sauce and believing that the only place it belongs is the bin. By itself, grass jelly may, to some people, taste like tar or bitter herbs that has been stewed on the stove for 24 hours. However, finely diced and with a generous amount of brown sugar syrup and ice, it is a real treat on a hot summers day. The sweet stewed beans and taro gives additional flavours, and the chewy tapioca and taro balls slows down the eating process just enough for your stomach to digest everything that you are throwing at it. With other popular items like shaved ice with condensed milk and mango, which would be a popular choice for kids, I think Meet Fresh should definitely be on your ‘To-Try’ list next time you are on Countney Place. Then you can tell me whether you think it tastes like tar or not.