Hotpot in Taipei

This was easily one of my favorite meals in Taipei.  I've always been a fan of hotpot but this restaurant (named 'Gathering' - as in a gathering of friends or family) really took it one step further with its delicious variety of meats, vegetables and other goodies.

Probably my favorite part of the meal was the appetizer included in the meal which was a delicious 'onsen' egg (an egg sitting on top of a boiling shot of water), a scallops on the shell and a piece of vinegar soaked cabbage.

As I'm a huge fan of eggs, this was probably one of my favorite parts of  the meal. The drink on the right was described to me as prune juice, unless I got that wrong, which I usually quite abhor. But this was so delicious and refreshing that I'm still confused whether I had made a mistake as to what I was drinking!

A shot of the vegetable platter with all your regular goodies:

If you're a fan of fish balls and the like, which I am, this will definitely delight your eyes and stomach. The beef was excellent.

A closeup of the lobster ball is shown on the left.  On the right is something I was a little confused about initially. Actually, the plastic packages containing a paste of pre-made noodles so that when you squeeze it out into the hotpot bowl, it will take the form of a thin noodle which you squeezed out - pretty neat!

Amazingly, even after all this, we were still not done. A nice big stuff crab claw and an egg completed the rest of a delicious meal which didn't even cost $20 USD!

I have no idea why we don't have such delicious food here. In any case, the meal concluded with a taro dessert, not my favorite but excellent all the same. Can't wait until the next time I go to Taiwan to try this place out again!