I never really knew that beef was a big thing in Taiwan until my agents in Kaohsiung told me about 牛老大 Hotpot, or Big Boss Hotpot.

This is a place that has a few branches and specializes in Beef dishes.  The main dish that they offer is a hotpot for beef, but they also have stir fried beef dishes and other things centered around beef.

The big selling or drawing point of this place is one major thing – they slaughter the cows in the morning and that is the only beef they use that day in their restaurants.  Once they run out of the day’s slaughter, they close.  So the beef is fresh for the day and you are supposed to be able to tell the difference.

Here is the test!

We start our with our Hotpot, a simple broth with vegetables.

To this we add some Beef Brisket.  This one is not freshly slaughtered, but aged for a week and then added in to give it the beef flavor in the broth.

Other Hotpot items include some minced beef with spices and beef mixed with minced fish.

Now here is the star, the freshly slaughtered beef.  It looks so red and fresh!

So how you put this together is you place the beef in the hotpot for a few seconds, then place it into your bowl  There you put julienned ginger and then scoop some of the broth in there.  You then let if finish cooking and dip the beef in a mixture of sauce that you put together on your own.

I have to say, the taste was fresh, not too gamey, and just real subtle and real nice.

Some mee sua to go with your noodles and soup.

There are other dishes as well on their menu, and we tried a bunch.  Here we have Beef and Scallions cooked with egg. So nice.

Beef with Basil and Ginger Slices.  So fragrant and flavorful.

Beef with some Chili and Veggies.

Beef with Scallions and Ginger.  Another dish so fragrant and flavorful.

You can taste the subtleness of the beef and the freshness of it.  Definitely an experience to eat it.