Taipei residents have been heading south for years to experience the cozy "old Sichuan" ambience and salty Dongbei (northeastern China) flavor of Tripod King's (鼎王麻辣鍋) four branches in Taichung. Seventeen years after the first Tripod opened, Taipei finally got a branch of its own in October. Was it worth the wait?
Well, the wait isn't over yet. Tripod prefers walk-in reservations, meaning the same people that didn't mind waiting an hour or more to get seats after driving all the way to Taichung are now thrilled to sign their names on a list a mere two or three hours before getting into the Taipei branch.
But once inside - and when the staff says two hours its two hours prompt, there's no need to hover around the door like everyone else seems to - it's obvious Tripod is not your average hotpot shop.
PHOTO: BLAKE CARTER, TAIPEI TIMES
The waitstaff pads about in traditional silk robes and slippers, dark wood furniture glows under paper lamps and even the small iron teakettle and teacups on the table have been carefully arranged as if to say: "Look, this is what you're about to pay for."
A glance at the menu explains all the pomp: meat dishes are NT$280 to NT$290 each. Add dumplings (NT$180), handmade meatballs (NT$180 to NT$190), veggies and tofu and the price quickly jumps to around NT$600 per person.
Tripod's famous for its hotpot base: After eating, cult-like clientele tote out plastic bags of the stuff to finish at home. It comes in two flavors: spicy (麻辣鍋) and with pickled cabbage and pork (東北酸白菜鍋, or Dongbei pickled cabbage pot).
The menu says the spicy base contains 32 healthy ingredients, but it appears to be the usual stock cube and pepper oil melted in brine with some soggy chili bits muddled in the mix. The crunchy Sichuan peppercorns, star anise and dried "facing-heaven" chilies (朝天椒) that make a good hotpot and leave the mouth tingling are either missing or so finely ground they sneak past the taste buds.
The pickled cabbage base is even less spicy and thus seems more authentic - Dongbei food isn't known to pack a punch. This one might appeal to fans of summer kimchi.
It's hard to spite Tripod, though, as most other Taipei hotpot places with mala in the name don't seem to know what it means, either. Too much spice and they'd probably drive away most of their clientele.
And what Tripod lacks in Scoville heat units, it makes up for with its amicable ambience and exemplary service. The simplest "May I have more broth?" or "Where is the bathroom?" elicits a smile and a deep bow from the waitstaff.
You can't buy that for a dollar. Matter of fact, it'll cost about 1,200 of them if you bring a date.
June 9 to June 15 A photo of two men riding trendy high-wheel Penny-Farthing bicycles past a Qing Dynasty gate aptly captures the essence of Taipei in 1897 — a newly colonized city on the cusp of great change. The Japanese began making significant modifications to the cityscape in 1899, tearing down Qing-era structures, widening boulevards and installing Western-style infrastructure and buildings. The photographer, Minosuke Imamura, only spent a year in Taiwan as a cartographer for the governor-general’s office, but he left behind a treasure trove of 130 images showing life at the onset of Japanese rule, spanning July 1897 to
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
In an interview posted online by United Daily News (UDN) on May 26, current Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was asked about Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) replacing him as party chair. Though not yet officially running, by the customs of Taiwan politics, Lu has been signalling she is both running for party chair and to be the party’s 2028 presidential candidate. She told an international media outlet that she was considering a run. She also gave a speech in Keelung on national priorities and foreign affairs. For details, see the May 23 edition of this column,
RSS