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RESTAURANT REVIEW: Mushroom Park (伯菇園)

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Taipei’s hot pot restaurants are almost as ubiquitous as its 7-Elevens and the variety available reads like a scene from Forrest Gump: Sichuan hot pot, shabu shabu, Mongolian hot pot, all-you-can-eat hot pot, and so on. The cozy and elegant Mushroom Park (伯菇園), however, offers a particularly novel twist on this dining tradition. As the name suggests, dozens of different mushrooms varieties are available for diners to toss — or place lovingly — into a boiling pot of fragrant broth.

Mushroom Park’s meals are sold in sets that include everything from appetizers to dessert. The beauty and health set (美容瘦身套餐T$450 per person for parties of two or three, NT$410 each for four people or more — larger parties get additional plates of meats or mushrooms with each meal) has mushrooms that are supposed to improve your skin or slim your body. Both the nature health set (自然健康套餐T$520 per person or NT$490 for larger parties) and healthy delicacies set (保健美食套餐T$430/NT$390) are geared towards health-conscious diners. The vegetarian set (素食套餐T$550/NT$500) features hearty “chicken” mushrooms in place of the beef, pork or chicken that come with the other meals.

My dining companion and I settled on the VIP set (VIP套餐T$710/NT$630). All meals start with small dishes of crunchy wasabi-flavored dried mushrooms and a generous portion of mushroom floss, a vegetarian version of the rousong (肉鬆), or dried shredded meat, that is usually found in sandwiches and on top of bowls of congee. The snacks were followed by Mushroom Park’s addictive ice-chilled mushroom “sashimi” appetizer, which is made from the thick, tender stems of king oyster mushrooms (杏鮑菇). Served with a plate of soy sauce and wasabi just like fish sashimi, the moist mushroom slices are pleasantly firm, smooth and cool on the palate.

As soon as you are done with your appetizers, Mushroom Park’s attentive wait staff places a large pot of hot broth on the burner in the middle of your table. A scoopful is offered to each diner so you can savor its preservative- and artificial coloring-free goodness before food is added. Each set includes four or five different types of mushrooms; your server will introduce each mushroom’s unique flavor and health properties one-by-one. Our VIP set also came with slices of premium beef and DIY meatballs, a ground pork mixture for you to shape into balls with a spoon before dropping in the boiling broth. A pre-set timer lets you know when your food is ready.

While the mushrooms are the main highlight, each set comes with plenty of extra touches, like a giant mug of tea made from a colorful bouquet of herbs and dried blossoms, handmade mantou (饅頭), or steamed buns, that are served as a palate cleanser in the middle of your meal (you can opt for dumplings instead), and a delicious flan- or green tea-flavored jelly for dessert (the vegetarian set gets a sweet soup with agar). While mushrooms may not seem like a hearty meal, we left Mushroom Park fully sated — and with a generous bag of leftovers.

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