Hot Pot at 嗎哪 MaLa in Taipei
One of the popular Chinese cuisines, if you can say cuisine – perhaps method is more appropriate, is Hot Pot (cooking). Do It Yourself (DIY) cooking is found in many Asian cuisines. With Korean BBQ, Japanese Shabu Shabu, Japanese Tempura/Sushi Bars, Mongolian BBQ, and Chinese Hot Pot the art or performance of cooking and preparing becomes part of the “fun” in the eating environment. Westerners or Americans can also relate with ritual of outdoor Barbecue. Hands on method of cooking has been perfected over the years with ingredients being the only way to distinguish restaurants apart.
MaLa’s competitive advantage is in its broth. Their spicy hot broth is more flavorful, than the typical at most other Hot Pot restaurants. Hot Pot restaurants, derived from Szechuan cuisine, is spicy and yet sour. MaLa’s moves away, with its modern interpretation, which you might call Taiwanese influenced.
For invoices in Hot Pot dining, the event is fun in cooking what you eat. The raw or cold items are presented with a bubbling cauldron of a spicy or non-spicy broth. Herbs, spices, and other items maybe already added, to provide flavor and some consistency. Basically you order the type of hot pot – spicy and/or mild, and the ingredients – meats, seafood, and vegetables, Your dinner mates, then add their items to the pot, sometimes with a mesh spoon. Meats, such as pork, chicken, and beef, need only be cooked for a few seconds. Veggies, like tofu, cabbage, mushrooms, can be left in a longer time to soak up the flavors and breakdown the fibers. A dipping sauce is also available to provide an additional mouth tasting action. After everything is finished, you can even drink this hearty and flavor soup. This soup contains all the nutrients and protein from the different meats and vegetables.
Mala also features great ingredients. Most Taiwanese like duck blood cubes (or sometimes Pig) and intestine. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I enjoy those types of things. I like to stay with sliced marbled meats, the meatballs, and vegetables. The more marbled(fatty) the meat, the more flavor the meat has. I know meatballs have been sort of a recent popularization in Hot Pot cooking, perhaps in the last 10 years. Enoki mushrooms, the small white ones, are quite popular with hot pot. Fish balls/paste is another addition I like. Served as a paste, you slice off different amounts for the customized size of “balls” for the hot pot.
Often times, it can be said that the broth is the most important detail in hot pot. And Mala’s sets itself apart with it modernist flavor style.
嗎哪 精緻鴛鴦鍋
MaLa Hot Pot
臺北市大安區安和路二段209巷2號
Lane 209, Section 2, ĀnHé Rd, Da-an District
02-27333589
11:3014:30
17:0023:00
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