We hear a lot about "hot and sour soup" these days. The other day, it was featured on "Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai" (The World That Matsuko Doesn't Know). Did you know that a hot hot spicy hot sauce restaurant has also opened in Sasazuka?

So we went undercover for the first time at the Sasazuka branch of Qipao Maoratang, which has drawn a long line since it opened on Keio Crown Street in May of this year!

I went there around 11:30 a.m. to avoid the busy time of day. The restaurant was full, but there were no customers waiting, and I was ushered into the restaurant in about five minutes.

Before we were shown around, the waitress explained the restaurant's system. The basic soup and noodles are fixed at 620 yen, but the ingredients are priced at 1g = 3.1 yen, and you can choose what you want and how much you want using the bowls and tongs placed inside the restaurant.

There are more than 40 different kinds of ingredients, including not only vegetables, but also meatballs, Korean rice cakes, Taiwanese fried bread, and more! Of course, it's a lot of trouble. The store is not large, so if there is someone waiting in line behind you, you may feel rushed. So it might be safer to have a good idea of what you are looking for beforehand. This time, I chose the following items: Chinese cabbage, bamboo shoots, Korean rice cake, yuba (bean curd), and kikurage (kikurage). I used tongs to grab a handful of each, and the price for the ingredients was about 400 yen.

By the way, if you register on the restaurant's LINE when you visit, you can get mozzarella cheese or a half-boiled egg as a special offer, and I chose the mozzarella.

After choosing the ingredients, you choose the spiciness of the soup. There are six levels of soup, ranging from not spicy at all to very spicy. I chose the popular medium spicy "2 spicy".

It also seems that you can change the flavor of the soup and noodles as an option.

After all the selections have been made, the waiter calculates the price based on the amount of ingredients, etc., and waits for you at your seat with the slip issued to you.

After about five minutes, the hot sauce was brought to our table!

A sip of the soup will fill your mouth with the flavor of nourishing medicinal herbs. And...it is quite spicy! I am a fan of spicy food, but I felt that this was the limit of spicy food that I could enjoy.

The thick vermicelli is firm and elastic, which I like! However, that makes it hard to chew when you have a mouth full of it. The melted mozzarella cheese is also very tasty, but it is also very chewy, so I recommend eating it little by little.

As you continue to eat, your insides gradually warm up and sweat beads on your forehead. By the time I finished eating, I was drenched in sweat.

The checkout is self-checkout, so you can pay at your own timing.

When you leave the restaurant, the breeze feels pleasant on your sweaty body. My stomach was full and I felt refreshed. My insides felt warm for a while.

The taste is rich in medicinal herbs, so there may be different tastes, but those who like it will definitely want to repeat the experience. By the way, I would like to go there about once a week if time and money permit!

It is also recommended for maintaining good health in the coming cold season.