Today, we're doing soup.

- Taiwan style.

It's amazing 'cause it's so hot in Taiwan,

and yet, they love their soup here.

- It's eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner,

so many great dishes to try.

But before we get there,

Steven where are we?

- We are here at the Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields.

Is that right Inga?

- Jingzaijiao.

- Historically one of the earliest

salt-producing areas of Taiwan.

Ocean water comes in, the sun evaporates it,

and you're left with salt.

Speaking of salty liquids.

- Sweat?

- No. - Oh.

- We're doing soup.

- Today on Worth It,

we're going to be trying three Taiwanese soups

at three drastically different price points

to find out which one is the most worth it at its price.

- It's so windy.

- The typhoon just passed.

- We're heading a little bit north of the city of Tainan

to where, Inga?

- We're going to Chiayi to have some fish soup

at Lin Cong Ming Yu Tang.

- Lin is my last name, and cong ming is smart,

so we're just going to, like, the smart version of me

fish place. - Oh wow.

That'll be a extra special treat.

(jazzy music)

- Taiwan is very hot.

- Yes.

- [Steven] Soup is a very hot food.

Why do Taiwanese people love soup so much?

Taiwan was a poor place.

It's easier to feel full adding soup to the meal.

We've been serving this soup for the past 60 years, since my grandfather's time.

What's special about this is we cook 100 servings in one go.

The taste can only be acquired by using such big amounts of ingredients.

The essence of the abundant ingredients is condensed in one bowl of soup.

- What kind of fish is in the soup?

We mainly use silver carp and salmon in our soup.

Silver carp is a native Taiwanese river fish.

Our salmon is imported and it's quite popular among gourmets.

Our broth base is made with pork bone and water, cooking from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Napa cabbage

Garlic

Onion

Scallion

Non-GMO tofu

Next step is chopping up the fish and deep-frying them.

Why is the fish fried and then added afterwards?

There was no refrigerating to preserve the fish back then in Taiwan.

My grandpa opted for deep- frying to dehydrate the fish.

It also helps to absorb the broth when submerged in the soup.

I noticed that customers can come back with their bowls

and get more broth.

It's a tradition of the restaurant.

We strive to treat our customers like family. You should eat to your heart's content at home.

It's also thanks to the continuous support of our customers that we can cook in such great quantity.

That allows a continuous flow of soup for everyone to share.

(cash register dings)

- Ooh!

- Oh...

Yay...

(Steven speaks in foreign language)

- What's the plate for?

- For the fish bone.

- Oh, fish bones. - Oh...

- Is this your beer?

- Yes, it's my fish beer.

- Cheers, Steven.

(bottles clink)

(trumpet music)

Look at that logo.

Fish soup beer, I am blown away.

- Cheers in Mandarin is...

(Steven speaks in foreign language)

Is that right?

(Andrew speaks in foreign language)

- Okay, that was very unexpected.

Wow, again.

- Wow, a thousand times.

- This is very refreshing.

- It is.

- Give me one word.

- Wow.

- [Steven] So this is the marquis piece right here.

I'm just gonna bite into this.

(Andrew groans in satisfaction)

- This is like a dish that dares you

to want something else.

You want vegetables?

Boom, we got it.

You want tofu?

Forget about it.

You want pork?

We got it right here.

You want fish? Boom.

Fry it? We can do it.

- Yeah, when she was listing the ingredients,

it was just like the NBA All-Star Game.

And here we have the tofu!

Next up, cabbage!

- Y'all ready for this?

(Steven laughs)

Chiayi is also very famous for turkey meat sauce over rice.

Customers always get the combo of turkey rice and fish head soup in here.

Turkey rice.

I love how this soup, with all of this stuff,

they were like,

"Nah, you still need some turkey rice."

- That's right.

If there's one thing we learned here in Taiwan,

you cannot leave a restaurant hungry.

They will assault you with food.

In the most lovingly way possible.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music)

Mm, it's just turkey meat and fat on a bowl of rice.

It's great.

If you weren't an adventurous eater,

this would seem like a scary bowl of food,

but it all just kind of blends into this big soft hug.

I don't know.

It tastes nice.

It's a kind taste.

- That's exactly how you say it in Mandarin though.

- Really? - Good eat, right?

Good taste.

(Inga speaks in foreign language)

- Means good eat, good taste, yeah.

- Let's spread the kindness.

(Andrew slaps hand on table)

- Once I finish this meal,

it will be so long until I get to eat this again.

And that makes me sad.

- I know, this whole trip is actually just--

- It's sad. - The worst.

(Inga speaks in foreign language)

- That soup was incredible.

In the rainbow of soup to stew,

this was somewhere in the middle in like the--

- Stoup? - Stoup

section, yeah. - There it is!

- So before we get to our next soup,

we decided to get some treats

at the Garden Night Market in Tainan.

- [Steven] This is my favorite treat at Night Market.

It is a peanut roll with ice cream and cilantro.

- [Andrew] What?

Cilantro in a dessert?

I guess it makes sense,

we put mint in desserts,

and that's just

another green leaf. - Oh, I didn't even

think of that.

Cheers? - Cheers.

- [Steven] Huh?

Huh? - Oh.

Huh? - Oh.

I like dessert cilantro.

So our next soup is actually going to be hot pot.

- Hot pot fact!

- Archeologists have found pots from two thousand years ago

that may have been used to make an early iteration

of hot pot.

These were found in the Anhui province of China.

- Wow, old hot pot.

Dude, hot pot for me,

every Thanksgiving in the Lin family,

we always, always, always eat hot pot.

- It would make sense that soup was one

of the oldest things humans ate.

- Yeah just water, throw some stuff in there and eat it.

- Tomorrow, hot pot.

Inga where are we going?

- We are going to A Yu Niu Rou Sha Sha Guo

to eat some beef soup.

- That's what I'm talking about.

Beef soup.

Get that hot pot, throw some beef in there,

throw some soup in there, throw some veggies in there.

Whatever you want, we're gonna eat it.

(Steven coughs)

Excuse me.

I choked on a peanut.

Why do you love hot pot so much?

Life is perfect while you enjoy this pot of delicious broth and beef.

Room temperature beef shabu-shabu is known for its freshness.

The cattle are raised in the mountains all over Taiwan.

Then butchered in the government-run slaughterhouse in the Shanhua District of Tainan.

The beef comes straight from there after being butchered and inspected.

- How often do you get the deliveries?

Every meal.

Every meal?

For example, the beef served now during lunch was butchered this morning.

Therefore the beef has this natural sweetness and QQ (chewy) texture.

We saw that it arrived by taxi.

Is it always come by taxi?

We paid the cab to pick it up because we're too busy in the store.

That's so cool, the meat takes a cab to every meal.

(everybody laughing)

It takes about 6-8 hours to make the broth.

The first layer of ingredients is beef bones.

Second layer is stacks of beef brisket.

We use about 264 pounds of brisket for the broth.

Topping the pot with one bag of vegetables and fruits each.

There's also vegetables in the dish already?

The vegetables in the small pot is to bring out the taste of the broth.

Cabbage is the star of the pot.

The vegetables really complement the broth and make the hot pot perfect.

For someone who's never had hot pot before,

how do you eat it?

Dip the beef in the boiling soup around 3 times/5 seconds and it's ready to eat.

I always recommend eating without condiments first.

For the second bite, try the beef with a bit of our special sauce.

My husband is in charge of extracting the prime cut out of the beef.

The freshly butchered beef is quite soft and requires great skills with the knife.

He is so good with the knife! Every piece comes out with the same thickness!

You also have this pork rice.

It's free for all the customers?

My husband is a generous guy.

He wants the customers to have the rice to go with the delicious beef shabu-shabu.

Perfect combination!

(everybody laughing)

(cash register dings)

(jazzy music)

(Andrew and Steven speak in foreign language)

We've eaten a lot of beef on this show,

but this is some of the prettiest beef I've ever seen.

The color is ridiculous.

Cold-brewed oolong.

This is one of the coolest things.

It's like, tea snow globe.

And it's got the net in the--

- [Steven] No way!

- [Andrew and Steven] Cheers.

- Mm.

- [Andrew] You wanna start with this one?

- [Steven] Let's do it, the shoulder cap.

- Cheers, Steven.

- Whoa.

- [Andrew] One, two,

three. - Wow.

Going in.

One.

Two, oh no!

(Andrew laughs)

- This smells incredible.

- Cheers.

- Oh, that's nice beef.

- We're just getting to eat really nice steak.

- Yeah. - With soup.

- And you get to eat it the second it's done cooking.