I don't like Hotpot

Do You like Hotpot?

  • I like Hotpot
  • I don’t like Hotpot
  • I’m indifferent
  • I have never tasted it

0 voters

I like all types of Taiwanese/Chinese food, but Hotpot is just one type that I have never really found a craving for. Everytime I go with friends to Hotpot (because it’s never something I suggest), I always have a few pieces of meat and veggies and then I’m finished. I hardly feel stasified after eating it, and often times i feel a bit unwell too.

The other day I went with my friends for some Hotpot. Often times the waiters shovel into the boiling water some big meat-ball-like chuncks of meat. I happened to eat an uncooked one (yes, my fault I know, but it was covered in sauce… the outside looked cooked!) and my stomach has been suffering ever since.

I think the style of Hotpot is really unique and I don’t mind joining my friends if they are adamant about going. It’s just the sauces, the spcies, the salts all make my stomach queasy after finishing. Is there anyone out there who can relate to this?

I have to be in the right mood for it. Also, I have to be hungry and cold.

i dont want it everyday but there are great hotpot places and there are less then great hotpot places.

If you paid less then 250nt a person its probably in the less then great category? And also higher chances of getting taipei tummy (cousin of the delhi belly).

I do like hotpot, but I can relate to some of the after effects. I like ultra-spicy “mala guo,” but it can tend to give you a queasy tummy later, especially the next morning.

Like tommy says, there are hotpots, and there are hotpots, and generally you get what you pay for. It sounds like you’re referring to 麻辣鍋 (spicy hotpot). Personally I like the 三媽臭臭鍋 chain, but that’s just me. There’s also a very good (and cheap) one in ZhuWei, if you live in that area, just across from the MRT with a flashing LED sign on the 2nd floor. The all-you-can-eat buffet ones, where you select what you want, tend to be awful unless you’re paying NT$450+. Near ShiLin station there’s a very interesting one with (IIRC) a northern-china flavour to it; lots of cumin and garlic. Try different shops, you’ll probably find one you like … or at least like better.

I’m not a big fan. For one reason, I go to restaurants with the intention of having someone else cook for me. I also find it very difficult not to overcook everything - ending up with horribly overcooked cabbage and grey meat. AS the OP has noted, it’s really easy to undercook stuff as well which leads to a dodgy tummy.

In general I don’t like it, but it is quite sociable and fun with a gang of Taiwanese.

I’ve managed to talk the missus down from trying to get me to eat it every day to once a month or so. She would have it breakfast, lunch and dinner if she could.

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I’m in the same boat as the OP, if i’m forced to go with friends, i’ll go but it usually means that i’ll have an upset stomach for the rest of the night. Also, I can never go in summer, it’s just too hot… i get the argument from friends “but the place is air-conditioned”, but it leaves my body feeling hot and sweaty for the rest of the day.

wanna swap? Mine hates hotpot. I have to go by myself, at least twice a week.

wanna swap? Mine hates hotpot. I have to go by myself, at least twice a week.[/quote]
if she hates shopping too, you may well have yourself a deal :wink:

Yeah, the over or under-cooking of food can be an issue, as can the spices and sauces.

I also have never understood the concept of going out and paying someone not to cook your food for you, and then adding a service charge to boot! I hung out with some Asian guys in Australia and they were really big on Korean barbecue restaurants. I never got that one either. It’s also the scale of the barbecue. It’s like going out with a bunch of friends to watch a movie on someone’s iPhone. :banana: that. You either go to a multiplex so you can have the full giant screen, surround sound experience, or you go to the house of the person with the biggest/best home entertainment system, couches, etc. So it is with barbecues and hot pot cookers. You want something that can double as a crematorium.

The biggest issue for me though is that I really dislike watery food. When I have hotpot, I don’t have the soup, but my food is still wet and I don’t like that. I like soups, but they have to be much thicker (preferably blended). Anything that has a sauce has to at least have a proper sauce. I don’t like really runny sauces in general, so I generally reduce the sauce quite a bit if I am cooking anything with a sauce. If I eat instant noodles, I generally drain the water, then add the flavouring and mix them. Asian people don’t understand this about me.

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Tasteless, boring shit.

I was not a big fan of hotpot for years, but I figured out why. The soup, it can come in many different flavors, and once I found out there is a spicy soup I was sold. :lick:

Someone mentioned going to a restaurant and having someone else cook for you, which I agree with, but it is nice not having any cleanup afterward. :discodance:

One of my favorite hotpot places is ‘Fondue King’. There is one I go to in Yonghe, and I know there is one near the TGIFridays next to Zhongxiao Dunhua Mrt station, as well as others that their location eludes me at this time. Give them a go, might end up liking hotpot afterward. :thumbsup:

:laughing: I can see it from most other points of view for sure. When I first came to Taiwan, I couldn’t speak Chinese at all. I wanted to stay as healthy as possible so I would shop at carefour and make my own food. When I went out with my girlfriend (American who couldn’t speak Chinese either at the time) I wanted to go to a place where ordering was kept to a minimum. There was this BBQ next to 德安百貨 next to the train station in Taichung. We would only go there and FM. After 4 months we moved to Taipei (Xinian) and I was brave enough to buy a scooter. In Taipei I have two locations that are my favorites. tian wai tian 天外天 and the other one is called MK 1st location in dong qu area. Perhaps my days as a starving studnet in College had burned a hole in my brain to learn to enjoy anything or is just because I was raised on seafood and wildlife most of my life in Alaska. I can and do eat nearly anything but my girlfriend is Midwest born and raised - turned Vegetarian for a while when we were first here, so Hot pot was a good choice for the both of us. I didn’t have to use any Chinese and I went and cooked what I wanted to. I made dipping sauces there for my girlfriends liking and soon we were pros. Now she is a regular at the three stinky mom’s (三媽臭臭鍋)and loves the kimchee. I am fairly fluent in Chinese now so going anywhere in Taiwan is fine. I still love the tomato or sauer kraut hot pot at tian wai tian in gonguan especially on a cold and rainy day. They even have movenpic icecream to cool you down afterward!! We went there so much the owner still remembers us. :smiley:

There is actually one in the ShiLin area (I think) called 臭媽媽臭臭鍋 … haven’t tried it yet. Yeah, the ‘free’ ice-cream ones are the best! The cumin-flavoured one I mentioned has the ‘хлеб-соль’ (bread&salt) brand, which is really good.

oh, come on. Now you’re just being greedy.

It’s gotta be winter. Make it at home, hard to go wrong with soup that has whatever you like in it. Get the “aiziwei” brand vegitarian sacha sauce, much nicer, the other one is made from dried shrimp.

LOVE ShabuShabu and Korean BBQ.

But I don’t know, the Chinese seem to do it differently than the Japanese (and of course Korean is way different).
So far I’ve been less than impressed with the Chinese style. Then again, only had it in Beijing. However, it was in this fabulously popular and posh restaurant so its not like it was a bad example.

The best thing about huo guo shops, IMHO, is that some of them stay open until, like, 2 or 3am. Ditto with breakfast shops.

Shabu shabu, even Korean style, I can handle. I just can’t STAND Taiwanese hot pot.

The soup, the flavor, the odd bits they throw in it, I don’t like anything about it. It’s like literally just cleaning out the fridge into a boiling vat of water and calling it a meal. I hate to go with friends to eat this, too, and a new friend always seems to want to take you to eat at their fave hot pot place. I just lose my appetite completely.

For years I didn’t like it but then my wife (girlfriend at the time) showed me how to mix the sauce properly. I wasn’t adding things in the right amounts. Now I love it.