Taiwanese Hotpot (Huo Guo / Shabu Shabu)

Setting the Table

At home you can set up your hot pot anyway you want. All you need is a pot of to boil water or broth on a burner, utensils to put stuff into and get it back out of the pot, and bowls and plates to put the cooked stuff on.

In Taiwan it is now more common to see "mini hot pot" restaurants, where each diner has his or her own pot, rather than the more traditional family-style hot pots, where the group shares one hot pot.

At a mini hotpot restaurant, the table is typically set up like the first picture to the above-left. The full-size, annotated version of this picture is available via the Flickr module below.

A list of common common utinsels and tableware used for hotpot are listed below.

• Hot pot: hot pots come in many shapes and sizes from mongolian hot pots (which have a cone in the middle for the flame to heat the water surrounding it) to small individual metal pots. Basically, all you need is something that can boil water.
  
  Hot pots can be heated in a variety of ways. Old style hot pots used coal or alcohol/sterno. In most restaurants in Taiwan propane gas burners are used although microwave hot plates are becomming more common.
  
  At a mini-hotpot restaurant, there is a burner for each diner. The controls are located at the edge or just below the table in front of where the diner is sitting.
  
  If you are interested in buy a hot pot, I've listed some below.
• ladle: used to spoon (or I should say ladle soup from the hot pot to the soup bowl and to scoop out items that are difficult to grasp with chopsticks.
• chop sticks: At home you can use a fork if you prefer, but it is much easier getting food out of the hot pot with chopsticks. In Taiwan it is unlikely that the restaurant will have forks.
• soup bowl: A small bowl for cooling and drinking soup. You ladle the soup into the bowl. Let it cool and drink it from the bowl. Trying to scoop broth from the hot pot and drink directly from the ladle is a good way to burn off your lips and destroy your tastebuds.
• plate: the plate is usually used for discarding clam sheels, shrimp peelings, corn cobs, and other inedibles.
• bowel of rice: it is common to have a bowel of rice with hot pot, but you may need to order it separately at the restaurant.

Broth

While you can simply start with plain water and build the broth as you cook the food, in Taiwan it is common for the restaurant to prove a base broth. Competition among restaurants is fierce in Taiwan and some hot pot restaurants are famous for their broth and get much more business than those who are perceived as having less flavorful broth.

As you cook, much of the broth will boil away and you will likely want to add more before you are done. Usually, you will need to ask the wait staff to add more broth to your hotpot, but some provide the table with their own pitcher of broth so you can add more yourself.

• house style: this is the default broth. Every restaurant has its own broth. The recipe is often a closely-guarded secret.
• kimchee broth: spicy hot and sour
• ma la (spicey) broth: very very very spicey hot. Only order if you have a high tolerance for spicey food.
• curry broth: usually Japanese-style curry flavor, not quite the same as Indian curry.
• tomato broth: don't think tomato soup, think more of extra tangy vegetable broth.
• medicinal herb broth: tastes exactly like the name. People order it mostly because they think it is good for them, although I have heard that some people actually enjoy the taste.

Dipping Sauce

The restaurant will provide you with a small bowl for dipping cooked food into. They will either set it on the table for you, or they will have a stack of bowels at the condiments table.

Before your broth boils, you should go to the condiments table to create your dipping sauce. There are many possible ingredients that you can use, but those listed below are the most common in Taiwanese hot pot restaurants.

1. sha cha sauce: literally "sandy tea" sauce. Don't worry, the "sandy" comes from the dried fish and peanuts used to make it. In Taiwan it is often translated as "barbecue sauce." Sometimes it is translated as "satay" sauce, and many on-line sources claim that "sha cha" is the same thing as "satay", but it is very different from the sauce used in indonesian/thai/malay satay dishes that I've tried. When I think of satay, I think of coconut milk and peanut butter, which is nothing like the thick gritty sha cha sauce used with Taiwan hot pot cooking. I've also seen this referred to as "Taiwanese shabu sauce with sha-cha".
   
   According to an article in an old issue of Taiwan Journal, the sauce is Cantonese (from Guandong Province) and "consists of dried shrimp, peanuts, garlic, hot peppers, tea leaves and salt."
   
   Most Taiwanese buy Sha Cha sauce in a can for home use, rather than making it from scratch. A popular brand is: Bulls Head BBQ Sauce from HAW-DI-I FOODS CO., LTD. THe listed ingredients for this brands are: "Soybean oil, Brill Fish, garlic, spice, shallots, sesame, coconuts powder, dried shrimp, chili powder and salt". See the official product home page for more information.
   
   For some reason, the only on-line stores I can find it in are in Britain. For example, see Chilliworld.com .
   
   UPDATE! You can buy Bulls Head Sha Cha sauce on-line in the USA from Seattle's International Products Corp.
2. soy sauce: hot pot restaurants will always have one or more varieties of soy sauce
3. vinegar: there is usually one more more kinds of vinegar at the condiments table
4. crushed garlic
5. chives
6. la jiao (chopped chiles): every hot pot restaurant will have hot red chile peppers, chopped or sliced.
7. freshly ground daikon: not all Taiwanese hot pots have this. Ten years ago, I never saw this offered, but now with the increased popularity of Japanese-Taiwanese fusion cuisine, this is becoming more common. Usually this is best with lighter sauces, where you DO NOT use sha cha sauce. My wife, for example, usually uses only soy sauce with daikon, garlic, chives, and red pepper.

Main Dishes

There are a variety of main dishes available in Taiwan hot pot restaurants. Most common are thin slices of various cuts of beef and lamb. A variety of fish and other seafood main dishes are common and chicken is often available. Most restaurant also offer at least one vegetarian alternative

The following are common choices for main ingredients.

 

• beef: almost always thinly sliced, the price varies on the cut. The names are more artistic than descriptive. For example, at a recent restaurant: "blum blossom beef", "supreme fatty beef", and "snow falling beef".
• lamb: Like beef, the lamb is very thinly sliced. Most restaurants that offer lamb usually only have one type.
• chicken: Usually the chicken is cut into thin strips. Often only one type is offered. Sometimes a "low-fat" variety is on the menu.
• fish: a variety of fish may be offered. It is common to have a single "fresh" or "seasonal" fish entry, with the type of fish depending upon what is in season.
• seafood: usually a plate with a variety of shellfish. Shrimp, clams, oysters, cuttlefish, sea sponge, and squid are all common.
• hai lu (sea and land): usually, your choice of any meat dish with assorted seafood.
• Vegetarian: vegetarian dishes vary widely depending on the restaurant.
• Assorted Mushroom: not necessarily vegetarian, this main dish is popular among the health concious consumers.

Common Sides

While I've been to restauranta where you pay for each item you want, in Taiwan it is common to order one or more "main" items (usually meat or seafood) and then you will get a plate of various side items. For the most part, the sides are the same for every hot pot, but there may be different plates of sides to accompany seafood or vegetarian dishes.

Aside from something more to eat, the side also help flavor the broth and therefore the order in which you put the sides into the hot pot and how long you keep them in can be important. It is common, for example, to put tomatoes, clams, corn, and taro into the broth early on.

The picture shown here is a typical plate of sides. An annotated and full-sized version of the picture shown here is available via the Flickr module below.

Below, I have created a list of common sides with cooking tips.

Rather than ording each item individually, in Taiwan, it is common to order one or more "main" dishes (see the section on main dishes, below), which will come with a plate of side items.

Below is a list of common side or base ingredients used in Taiwanese hot pots, along with basic cooking tips.

• cabbage: I've never had hot pot in Taiwan that didn't come with cabbage. Usually it will come as whole leaves, which you will want to tear up before putting into the hot pot. This will make it easier to eat them after they've cooked. Depending upon how crunchy or mushy you like it, the cabbage should be done in a one to three minutes. It is hard to overboil cabbage and I know some Taiwanese that put the cabbage in at the beginning and leave it there for most of the meal to sweeten the broth.
• tomato: Nearly every hot pot will come with one to several tomato wedges. These sweeten the broth and are usually added to the hot pot immediately. A lot of people don't eat the tomato and only use it for broth.
• onion: sliced onion is another common ingredient. Usually put in right away and often not eaten, just used for the broth.
• corn: In Taiwan the restaurant will usually give you one or two pieces of corn on the cob. This sweetens the broth and is usually put into the hot pot early on. It is often left in the hot pot for a long time. It is hard to over cook it and is often eaten near the end.
• taro: Taro is very common in Taiwan. Usually the side plate will have at least one chunk of Taro. This helps thicken and sweeten the broth. Put it in right away. It will take a while to cook, about 10-15 minutes should be okay. If you overcook it, it will start to fall apart, but will still taste good. You can test to see if it is nearly done by trying to stick a chopstick through it.
• doufu (Tofu): A small block of fresh or frozen Doufu. It is hard to overcook and you can leave it in the hot pot for a long time. The longer you cook it the more flavor it will absorb.
• enokitake mushrooms: Also known as golden needle mushroom, winter mushrooms, velvet foot, or velvet stem (known as Flammulina velutipes or Flammulina populicola to biologists). They don't add much flavor to the broth, but are a popular mushroom to eat. They cook in just a few minutes.
• seasonal greens: A wide variety of green leafy vegetables are used in hot pot and can change from restaurant to restaurant and day to day.
• various mushrooms and fungi: While enokitake are the most common mushrooms used in Taiwanese hotpots, are wide variety of other mushrooms are often uses. It is not uncommon for the side plate to have two or three different types of mushroom. Many help flavor the broth and may be kept in the broth .
• dou pi (fried bean sheets): The literal translation would be "(soy)bean skin". These are dried sheets made from soybeans. While these don't add to the broth, you will want to cook them for a long time. The longer you cook them the better the more tender they are.
• pig blood rice cake: these look like black rice blocks. They are made with sticky white rice and pigs blood. You should cook for at least five minutes.
• sweet potato, pumpkin, and/or squash: Not all restaurants offer these. But they are not uncommon. Cook until you can easily stick your chopstick into them.
• Fish, squid, or shimp ball: These come in many varieties. Most Taiwanese hot pot restaurants will give you two or three. Click here for more information
• Eggs: most hot pot restaurants give each person one uncooked egg. Traditionally, you crack the egg and drain the egg white into the soup and then mix the yoke into the dipping sauce. But you can also boil the whole egg in the hot pot.
• crab sticks: usually imitation crab meat sticks. These are usually pre-cooked, so you only need to drop them into the hot pot long enough to become hot.