Grassland (草原風): Mongolian Hot Pot in Yongkang

Did you know Mongolian Barbeque originated in Taiwan? Mongolian Barbeque was a favourite of mine for a while in Vancouver when I was a teenager. Load up a bowl with as much meat as you like, along with a little bit of vegetables, noodles, and sauce, then watch someone cook it on a huge flat grill in just a couple of minutes. What could be better? But it doesn’t really have anything to do with Mongolia; it seems the originator just wanted a catchy name.

The couple who opened Grassland Mongolian Hot Pot, by their own account, were running a café called Wen Coffee (吻咖啡) that wasn't making money, and a Mongolian customer got talking to them about how people actually eat there. They started putting Mongolian dishes on the café menu as set meals. The set meals did better than the café. So they went to Mongolia, spent time with the ingredients and the culture, came back, and opened Grassland in 2006. Twenty years later, there are two branches, the original near Jiantan and this one in a Yongkang lane, and the format is still the one they landed on then: a personal pot per diner, a soup base built on Chinese medicinal aromatics, and a vegetable platter arranged by colour.

I got there a little before 2pm on a Monday. If there was a lunch rush, I completely missed it; I was the only person in the restaurant. One note, you're most likely walking from the MRT station. When you see the corner, don't go to the right, even if it looks like an entrance, keep following the road south and you'll find the entrance.

The menu contains a lot of English, but not everything is explained. First of all, when you see the list of meat choices, you initially have to choose from the higher “set” price in the left column. If you want another type of meat, that’s the lower “addon” price in the right column. So, from what I could see, the minimum price is NT$450, and it goes up from there.

The server was very friendly; she spoke English with me and explained a bit of the menu. She pointed out the double-meat options; I chose the beef and lamb for NT$629. Usually I order the 3-5oz of meat range, so when I got 10oz, I was surprised by the amount, but pleasantly surprised. Still, NT$629 is getting up there for a lunch in Taiwan, but for the amount of food you get at hot pot, it’s usually at least a fair price. I’d call this one fair; the meat was pretty high quality for the regular options, the array of vegetables was some of everything, and the broth was incredible.

So let’s talk about the broth. I chose the spicy broth (of course). There are also herbal and vegetarian base options. It’s rather heavy on the cumin, in a very good way. It reminded me a lot of the cumin broth at Laozi Hot Pot. The same deep savouriness. This broth, though, came with a whole medicine cabinet included: jujube, goji, whole garlic, and cardamom pods. I’d place it a step above the Laozi broth; it was well seasoned, and about as flavourful as broth can get. Google reviews mention you don’t even need a sauce because of how the broth fragrances the meat and vegetables so well.

Speaking of which, I don’t think they provide sauce by default here. There’s no sauce station like a lot of hot pot places. But the service was excellent. Now, being the only person in the restaurant, this may change with a crowded restaurant. However, the server did ask me questions that weren’t necessary but appreciated: she asked if it was spicy enough; I said sure, I could use some more spice. She asked if I wanted a dipping sauce. I said sure. The sauce seemed like it was an oil base, had raw garlic, scallion, chilli… I may try to model my future sauces like this. Although I do like the shacha sauce that’s common with hot pot, this oil-based sauce was so so good.

Photo by Kalen Johnson

The vegetables provided were a wide array. Pumpkin, yellow pepper, enoki and woodear mushrooms, carrot, tomato, fish ball, fish cake, winter melon, plus bok choy and enough cabbage to make a salad with. Actually the pictures I took already had the melon pieces thrown in the pot, because I was so excited to get eating. Portion sizes are not small here. They also provided me some youtiao, not quite the version you get with soy milk for breakfast, but a smaller, more crispy version that holds up to being stuck in the broth for 15-30 seconds. I enjoyed it, but I only had one since I got way too full.

You have the choice of rice or a couple of types of noodles. Unknowingly, I chose the “handpull” noodles; at least that’s the English translation. It’s actually dried noodles coloured with vegetables. I believe they mean “hand-made” noodles, as the website says this is a collaboration with a local noodle maker. You can buy these noodles to go as a gift as well. The server told me they take 15 minutes to cook, and surprisingly they were pretty al-dente until around that time. I didn’t notice any flavour of different vegetables in the noodles, but that could be because of the heavily flavoured soup base. In any case, for a dried noodle, they hit the spot. Although I’m not as big of a fan of the soup getting gelatinous from the starch on the noodles, I may just go with rice next time.

NT$629 is quite a bit more than I usually spend on lunch. I’m not usually hitting NT$100, but NT$200-300 is generally reasonable for me. So going double that was a bit of a splurge today. But I’ve been wanting to stop by this truly Mongolian-inspired hot pot place for a while, even if there’s nothing to actually remind me of the Mongolian Barbeque I had growing up. However, for the price, it’s more meat than I usually get at hot pot, and the soup base is excellent. I might go for the ~NT$450 single meat option next time just so I can finish everything. But if I’m in Yongkang again for lunch, between the great food and great service, it’s a strong contender for my money.