Much in common with every TWese person I’ve met, my gf has a thing about Shabu Shabu and the hot pot restaurant experience… Lord knows I’ve tried, but I can’t seem to get into it.
Does anybody know a good hot pot restaurant?
Cheers
Ah, the shabu shabu issue…
You are out of luck. There are some hot pots that are slightly better than shabu shabu but they are not the same thing. I like Taiwanese-style lamb hot pots in the winter (羊肉盧) but most foreigners find the meat too much trouble to eat and the atmosphere too down home. Suancai Bairou hot pots at some of the northern style restaurants are OK but you need to be able to deal with the bairou (basically bacon) that is in them. Zhenbeiping near CKS memorial is good for this. Avoid all those nasty overpriced east Taipei Sichuan hot pots like the plague.
But your core issue is shabu-shabu. There is no good shabu-shabu because shabu-shabu is bland to begin with and the ingredients are a little shop of Frankenfood horrors. You’ll just have to make clear to your lady that shabu-shabu is a treat she’ll be enjoying with her friends. That’s what I’ve had to do, and so have most other non-Taiwanese men with this problem. Good luck, pray for understanding (you’ll need it), and keep in mind that she may well feel the same about some comforrt food from back home that you enjoy.
Yes alternatives include in no order of preference: -
Steak and Chips
Hot dogs
Burgers
Spagghetti Bolgnese
Salads
…shall I go on?
Shabu Shabu is a fun, friendly way to share food. What’s the problem? Sure its never going to be your favourite but every month or so take her out with her folks for some crab stick dunkin’ fun.
in taoyuan we have some sort of glorified shabu shabu that has 7 different kinds of broth, as well as the choices of meat. it became popular for the sugarcane broth, or was it bamboo … ?
anyways, it’s a little more expensive, but at least you can switch up the soups, and the meat you order. the goodies in the basket seemed a little better as well.
anyone help out with a name from this description (leaving this wide open for retort).
I can get by with loads and loads of chilli (and kimchi if its the Korean variant) to deblanderate the meal.
[quote=“Feiren”]Avoid all those nasty overpriced east Taipei Sichuan hot pots like the plague.[/quote] 
I don’t know anyone here who could handle a real Sichuan hotpot. In the UK, my Sichuanese flatmate brought back a pack of hotpot paste mix one time. We made it up using double the recommended amount of water. It was tasty but plenty spicy enough – spicier than anything I’ve ever had here!
What about the - forgive my pinyin- yin yang hot pot. The pot is divided into two seperate areas one spicy, one not? Although I think this is much more expensive than shabby shabu it is probably more palettable.
I used to love shabby, but have recently gone off it. It has nothing to do with the weather - I think my tastes have just changed. I’d rather just come home and cook.
The yin yang pot is quite famous; There is one near Minsheng W. road but I don’t know the address. Sorry.
L.