Fresh vegetables should be boiled only lightly. Mushrooms of various kinds, dried or fresh, are widely used, as are dried lily flowers. Bean curd and bean noodles serve as more than just fillers. They do not have much taste themselves, but they absorb the richness of the other ingredients. Bean noodles are usually cooked later to help finish up the soup.
Some people put plain rice into the last of the soup to make a porridge.
Consistent with Chinese culinary thrift, nothing is wasted. The sauces are also pre-prepared. Like other Chinese cuisine, various kinds of hot pot from the mainland have congregated in Taiwan since the arrival of mainlanders in 1949. The Taiwanese have also developed their own styles and have even imported foreign varieties. In Taiwan today, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and Swiss hot pots exist alongside Chinese ones.