2022年3月26日讀畢需時 8 分鐘

[Taipei Arena] Ro Do Do Hot Pot

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As a hot pot enthusiast, it's mind-boggling for me that Ares said that he doesn't like hot pot, but I never dragged him to any hotpot place.

However, about a month ago, he went to a shabu shabu restaurant with his friend. He literally just told me that he arrived at the restaurant, and he was home in less than 30 minutes. Turns out it was so bad he barely ate. Then he went on an hour-long rant about how terrible hot pot is. I decided that I have to clear the name for hot pot.

We were busy dealing with tech problems that day until really late. We weren't sure what to eat and we were too lazy to cook. Fortunately, a new Rododo Hot Pot restaurant just opened up about a 10-min bike ride away, and they are open till 4 a.m. I haven't had it in a long while, so I dragged him with me, hoping to change his mind.

Rododo, from Ledodo Group, has famously become one of the top choices for late night supper in recent years. My previous boss often took us to Rododo after work for dinner. But I haven't been there in almost 2 years, ever since I switched to my new company. Turns out they have totally upgraded since and is completely different!

Late-night Hot Pot: Rododo–Veggie Buffet

When I eat hot pot, aside from the meat, I love adding heaps of vegetables. First of all, the sweetness and flavor of the vegetables make the soup taste better. My family and I frequented a hot pot restaurant ever since I was a kid. One day, the owner asked us "why does your pot always smell better than everyone else's?" Well, that's our secret. Another thing is that I am a very picky eater, so I don't particularly love the balls, dumplings, and thingamabobs we add in hot pots. Because I have a hard time telling what is what and it's really tiring to be picky. Lastly, vegetables are very filling and keep me full for a long period of time. The high fiber content also helps me smoothly get rid of all that I have eaten on a hot pot cheat day.

Rododo has over 70 kinds of choices in their veggie, drinks, and ice cream buffet, which you can help yourself to as much as you want starting at NTD$268. You can also upgrade to a 10 Oz. Pork Shoulder Combo or Boneless Chicken Thigh Combo with an additional NTD$31.

The veggie buffet really has so much to choose from. You could find something that you eat even if you are very picky. My favorites are the high-fiber enoki mushroom, sweet cabbage, flavorful tomatoes, and vitamin-packed bok choy. There's also Ares' favorites, shiitake mushroom, black fungus, and seaweed. On the other side of the fridge, there are also the extremely tender baby pea sprouts, romaine lettuce, which can be eaten raw or cooked alike, as well as bittern melon and winter melon, which are exceptional at lowering internal heat (according to Chinese medicine). There are also various root and stem vegetables including taro, carrots, pumpkins, and even potatoes.

Of course, there are all types of hot pot ingredients like my favorite tofu skin and fish balls. Tofu and Chinese donuts, which are perfect for the mala soup. And tiny sausages, which Ares couldn't stop eating like an elementary school kid. The variety of choices also made the soup that they cooked in taste even better.

Late-night Hot Pot: Rododo–Soup

There are many soup bases to choose from. The store specialties are Dragon's Mala Soup and the recent addition of Cheesy Milk Soup. We went for Dragon's Mala Soup and Stir-Fried Garlic Chicken Soup. There are also a few others I found special, like Stir-Fried Seafood Soup and Vegetable Energy Soup. Vegetable Energy Soup is a free base that is made from slow-cooking vegetable purée and chicken broth, which is a healthy option that I'd like to try next time.

Drangon's Mala Soup

Mala translates to numbing spicy in English. Since I cannot survive without spicy food, this was naturally my first choice. The soup was designed in collaboration with Chef Jing-Long Huang, a famous chef that has been dedicated to studying Taiwanese cuisine and has won multiple awards.

The waiter stir-fried the ingredients in the pot before adding the soup. Which is a classic and traditional way of eating Taiwanese hot pot. He heated the stone pot to around 120°C then added the chef's special meat sauce. Once it becomes fragrant, he added in spring onions, dried chili, and other spices. Finally came the chicken broth. Unlike Sichuan mala hot pot, Dragon's Mala Soup was aromatic and spicy but smooth. Even Ares, who usually could not tolerate the numbness of sichuan peppercorns, was able to have this. It's a unique Taiwanese flavor.

Once it was boiling, I put in cabbage and bok choy to add sweetness to the soup. The strong soup is perfect for cooking tofu, tofu skin, and beef. You could also make mala fish balls with this. I usually get a dish of sauce on the side when I eat hot pot, with Taiwanese barbecue sauce, chili, and vinegar. Though Rododo has many different sauce choices, the soup was so flavorful I didn't need it at all.

Stir-Fried Garlic Chicken Soup

Once the pot was properly heated, the waiter added in the extremely healthy goji berries , ginseng slices, and minced garlic. We could immediately smell the aroma of the garlic. Then it was oat milk and Mongolian chicken broth.

After it boiled, I also added in cabbage. Then tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms to enhance its flavor. This soup is perfect for cooking seafood, so I added in the clams at the very beginning.

Ares originally remarked that the mala soup smelled better and stronger, and that he didn't have much confidence in the chicken soup. But he loved it! The rich soup, the sweetness of the cabbage, the umami of the shiitake mushrooms and clams... He couldn't stop drinking the soup.

Late-night Hot Pot: Rododo–32 Oz. Massive Meat Platter

When the meat platter came, my eyes sparkled. I love beef. Ares commented that there's way too much beef and seafood, and that he didn't think the two of us could finish it. Unbeknownst to him, the crazy woman sitting across from him (aka me) has been kicked out of an all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant for ordering more food after finishing 30 Oz of steak alone.

There are 3 different sizes for the meat platter. If you don't have a bottomless stomach like I do, you can go for the 24 Oz one. If you are confident that you can eat more than I do or if there are more people in your party, there's also a 40 Oz option.

The massive meat platter includes 3 types of beef: low-fat, flat iron, and brisket.

I like my low-fat beef medium-rare. I eat it kind of like how you would make raw beef soup. I put raw slices of low-fat beef in my bowl and pour bowling hot soup over them so that the meat cooks. This creates perfectly cooked low-fat beef that is tender even without the marble. The soup in your bowl would also be filled with amazing beef flavor. Ares just cooked his into the pot. I think he overcooked a bit but it wasn't chewy or hard either.

The flat iron is best medium. I like dropping a whole bunch into the pot at once, then spread them out in the soup and pick them up in 10–15 seconds. The marbling is perfect, making the beef slices extremely tender. I think it's also Ares' favorite based on what he went for.

The brisket is the fattiest cut of the 3, so it needs to be around medium-well. Rododo's brisket beef slices are not really thinly sliced hot pot beef slices, but with a bit of thickness, which makes them bounce against your teeth perfectly. I don't usually like to eat fatty meat but I loved it.

Late-night Hot Pot: Rododo–Seafood (Joy of The Ocean + Ocean Trio)

The best way to tell whether seafood is fresh is to make me eat them. Because I am so terribly allergic. I was once fed noodles that had some chili fish sauce in them and developed a terrible rash around my neck in under 5 minutes. I am also a hound, so if there's a tiny bit of fishiness to seafood, I would start feeling nauseous. When the seafood arrived, I smelled nothing, I just thought that the plating was gorgeous. I leaned in close to take pictures and still did not detect a hint of fishiness.

We had two huge plates of seafood this time. One is Joy of The Ocean. We later on found out that you get a free platter of Ocean Trio is you spend over NTD$300 on a combo after 22:00. I was suddenly really worried that Ares was going to get a stroke from all that seafood.

Compared to Ocean Trio, Joy of The Ocean has additional oysters and baby cuttlefish. The cuttlefish was so bouncy that it kept flying away when I was trying to pick them up for Ares.

I had an entire bowl of chicken soup after cooking the clams. I could clearly taste the flavor of the clams but it didn't stink. This would normally irritate my skin like crazy but I had no allergic reaction. Ares now questions whether I am lying about my allergies. I'm really not.

When the shrimp was cooked, I looked into Ares' bowl and was confused. Why was the color so light? Aren't they usually super orange when cooked? Then I realized that the shells were removed. Rododo removed them beforehand. There are a bunch of people arguing on the Internet about whether the boyfriend or girlfriend in a relationship should be the one to peel the shrimp. Which is a ridiculous argument to begin with, but if you can't settle that discussion, just come here. Rododo handled it for you. Couples can come here without worry, there isn't a pending fight on the horizon. Ares said that the shrimp was so creamy with a hint of sweetness.

I saw that the color of the basa fish in the platter was really pretty, which gave me confidence. But Ares was being a bit loco and wanted to eat them raw. I stopped him in horror and quickly cooked a few for him. His comment was "I don't know what fish it is, but it is delicious."

Late-night Hot Pot: Rododo–Mains, drinks, ice cream buffet

Rododo has so manny mains to choose from, it was driving my noodle-maniac self crazy. I wanted to try everything but I was so full. As a Taiwanese restaurant, there was, of course, rice and minced pork to go with it. The noodle selection was insane. Other than the common vermicelli (bean noodles), ramen noodles, steamed noodles, and instant noodles, there were also thick noodles and knife shaved noodles, which I LOVE. After cooking 32 Oz of beef in it, the Dragon's Mala Soup became so thick and the flavor of the spices has been so sufficiently extract into the soup, that I could not resist adding a pack of vermicelli at the end. The thin vermicelli cooked in the flavorful soup was food for my (dark dark) soul.

For drinks, there were slushies, all kinds of juice, and lactate acid drink. Of course, there are soft drinks and my champion, sugar-free zero-calorie lime soda water. It quenched your thirst and does not make you fat. And as always, Ares loves having some coke with his heavy meals.

We were full in the end but could not resist trying the soft serve. The flavors were too special to pass. Unlike most stores that offer vanilla and chocolate, Rododo's soft serve comes in Hokkaido milk and green apple. Ares was so excited about the milk soft serve, immediately saying that they must taste great. He was right, it tasted creamy and rich, almost like heavy cream. I've never seen green apple soft serve before so I had to try it. It is a lot more light with an obvious apple taste. It wasn't very sweet which made it very refreshing.

Late-night Hot Pot: Rododo–Special Discounts

Lastly, I have some good news to share! If you aren't a member of Ledodo's app yet, you can get a free gift of pork shoulders or chicken thighs when you join. You also get reward points later on, which can be exchanged for gifts. The rewards that you collect can be used in all stores under Ledodo Group.