Taiwan, Part X - Tripod King and ManTangHong

There are over 300 hot pot restaurants in Taipei. To survive in this kind of fierce competition, you need some skills. To have a following, you need to be of a certain caliber.

Tripod King (Traditional Chinese website) is one of the famous ones. It started in Taizhong. As its popularity grew, it opened four more locations, including one in Taipei. Unfortunately for me, it's so sought-after that a reservation needs to be made a month in advance. Fortunately, you can take home the leftover soup base. And lucky for me, my friend A happened to have some of that at home! =)

A good hot pot starts with a good soup base. Tripod King's soup is beyond good. It also included tofu and duck blood. I know "duck blood" might sound scary. Truthfully, I've never been a fan of pig blood or chicken blood. However, I'd give anything a try. So, I'm game. After the soup boiled, I took a piece of tofu and duck blood before my friend added meat and veggie to it. The tofu was very good. It absorbed all the flavors of the soup. And my adventure paid off. The duck blood was even better! It was so flavorful, and so tender. The texture is like custard, but even creamier. I've never had anything like it. It was so addictive that I couldn't stop eating. Just writing about it is making me drool. I wish I were back in Taipei again. Next time, I'm calling international long distance, and will make the reservation before I board the plane. Another thing I learned is that Chinese beer and peppery spicy hot pot are like a match made in heaven! I normally don't like beer. Think of what I've missed all along, I got to make up for lost time! =)

We did visit another very popular hot pot restaurant - ManTangHong for lunch. ManTangHong would translate to something like "full house of red", and it was! The place was packed. And the pots were boiling with red soup. It's an all-you-can-eat for 2 hours place. At lunch, it's NT$399 per person, plus 10% service fee. Instead of getting whatever you want from a table, you get an order form, and a waiter will bring everything to you.

We ordered two plates of beef, fish balls, dumplings, beef tendon, mushrooms, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, bamboo shoots, tofu, taro, mochi, and some noodles. This might sound like a lot, but compared to the tables around us, it's very little for three people.

Another key to a great hot pot is the dipping sauce. According to their personal taste, people can make their own sauce mixing sugar, chili, vinegar, soy sauce, chive, etc. There are way more options than I'm used to, so I didn't really know how to make MY perfect sauce. I'm sure if I could experiment a few times, and found my "secret recipe", I would have enjoyed this lunch even more.

The most popular soup base is the "love bird", which is half kelp soup, half peppery spicy soup. Even though we asked for mild, the peppery spicy soup was still quite spicy for me that I couldn't really taste the kelp soup. All the ingredients were very fresh. All the meat is displayed in a window, and sliced to order. There are eight flavors of Haagen Dazs ice cream for people to indulge in after the meal, self serve of course! (That's just too much, don't you think? ;)

Even though I wasn't fortunate enough to go to Tripod King, the duck blood definitely has me hooked. I think ManTangHong is a good place to start, but if opportunity strikes, don't hesitate, head over to Tripod King!

Tripod King (鼎王麻辣鍋)
Address: 89 GuangFu North Road, Songshan District
地址：台北市光復北路89號
Telephone: 02-2742-1166
電話：02-2742-1166
Hours: M-Su 11am - 3am
營業時間: 週一~週日 11:00 ~ 03:00

ManTangHong (滿堂紅頂極麻辣鴛鴦火鍋)
Address: 228 RenAi Road Section 4, Da-an District #4
地址：台北市大安區仁愛路4段228號之4
Telephone: 02-2701-6669
電話：02-2701-6669
Address: 185 SongJiang Road, Jhongshan District
地址：台北市中山區松江路185號2樓
Telephone: 02-2517-0889
電話：02-2517-0889
Hours: Weekday 11:30am - 3pm 5pm - 1am Weekend and Holidays 11:30am - 1am
營業時間：平日午餐 11:30-15:00 晚餐 17:00 - 01:00 例假日 11:30 - 01:00（除夕和大年初一公休）