Location: Hsinchu, Chuankuzi Mama Hot Pot, All-You-Can-Eat
Travel Notes: My younger brother luckily got into NCTU's Electrical Control Institute, so my older sister treated him to an all-you-can-eat meal. She seemed in a good mood, so she invited me too. That Saturday noon, after Morgan returned from Shimen Reservoir and Daxi Old Street, I headed straight to Chuankuzi Mama Hot Pot in Longshan Community. I'd been here with friends when it first opened, but every time I passed by, it never seemed very busy. Soon after, it switched to an all-you-can-eat model. Lunch on weekdays and holidays is NT$228+10%, while evenings are more expensive. The lunch options are quite extensive, filling a whole page: beef belly, pork shoulder, chicken, fried spare ribs, tripe, goose intestine, clams, basic hot pot ingredients... For the soup base, you can choose two out of five options; we picked the Mama Spicy Pot and Northeastern Pickled Cabbage Pot. Honestly, when it was à la carte, I thought it was a bit pricey, so I hadn't been back in a while. But with the all-you-can-eat model, it feels like great value, especially for lunch—around NT$250 for two soup bases and about 50 ingredients. While the br…