📍Coordinates: Taipei, Taiwan

The Shiong Shi Xue Wu (Snow House) near National Taiwan University of Science and Technology offers all-you-can-eat white rice and lemon iced tea, which really caters to students’ demand for value for money. The combo of one pot of soup plus one main dish seems to emulate the business model of popular noodle shops, making it feel particularly cost-effective. Therefore, it’s a restaurant my family and I often visit.

Here, the ordering method is to first choose your main dish, then select the soup base for the mini hot pot. This time, the two of us ordered:

• Herbal Royal Beef 🌶️🌶️ + Milk Soup Mini Hot Pot ($249, Milk Soup +39)
  The herbal royal beef is quite spicy; even those of us who usually eat mild to medium spicy fare found it a bit much, so I’d recommend telling the staff to reduce the chili. The beef is well-seasoned and comes with some vegetables and lotus root slices, although I think it lacks a bit of sweetness and is only salty. Overall, though, it’s still quite good. The milk soup must have cream added because it’s very aromatic and rich, making it quite tasty. It’s perfect for countering the spiciness, and I think this pairing is great.

• Sesame Oil Exploded Beef + Herbal Soup Mini Hot Pot ($249, Herbal Soup +39)
  This dish was ordered for the first time and matched my expectations; it was quite delicious. However, I again feel it could use some sweetness. I believe this is an issue with most of the dishes, which might just be a matter of personal taste. The herbal soup is very sweet and delicious, none of that blandness. I highly recommend this soup; I almost finished it all, as it helps cut through the greasiness. You can also find goji berries and red dates in it, which is also recommended.

The dishes at Shiong Shi Xue Wu are usually on the heavier and slightly oilier side, making them very rice-friendly and prompting one to dig in heartily. My favorite is still their mini hot pot, as they pack in plenty of vegetables, and the combination of spoonfuls of soup with rice is fantastic and very filling.

🥣 The milk and herbal soups are my top two recommendations 👍👍. Choose the milk soup to cut spice and the herbal soup for greasiness.

This place also sells desserts 🍧 that look very appealing, though I haven't ordered them yet. It’s a comprehensive restaurant that caters to customers in both summer and winter! Highly recommended to everyone~