January 7, 2006
Quickly Shabu Shabu, sugar, and chocs
- shabu shabu-ing?
Yesterday I went to Quickly Shabu Shabu with Amy and Diana. ...Or rather, I forced them to join me since I felt like trying shabu shabu, aka "cooking your own stuff in a hot pot because it's fun, heehee!" and it wasn't something I'd do on my own because then it'd be "cooking your own stuff in a hot pot because you're alone, which is kind of sad."
- inside
Quickly Shabu Shabu wins the award for "least eye-raping interior in Chinatown" I've seen so far. It's clean, bright, and "hip", with glowing, sun-like orbs dangling above each table and round mirrors on the wall that don't serve much purpose besides...reflecting light. I didn't write it down, but I think there are three two-person tables and three four-person tables. It's a small place, but the tables are huge to accomodate the numerous bowls of boiling liquid and tiered plates full of raw ingredients.
- hot pot control
Eat person gets their own hot pot control thinger. I didn't really know how to use it, but at some point my soup boiled so I must've done something right. ...Actually, I lied; Diana helped me.
- condiments
Right behind our table was the condiment station (which includes a basket of eggs; hell, I didn't need meat, I could've just eaten free eggs!). I had no idea what to use so I kind of mixed...a bunch of things. My recommendation: don't mix a bunch of things unless you know what you're doing. Also, add sauces/oils to the dry ingredients. Seems obvious, but some of us [points to self] are slow and are keeping the human race behind.
- meeat
- vegetables
I ordered the meal set that included two kinds of meat (I chose beef and pork), vegetables, and a drink. Amy chose to order a la carte and since Diana wasn't hungry, I figured we could share my food. However, to share food we had to order five more items. Ohh...hm. Okay, that doesn't really count as sharing food anymore, but we semi-randomly chose five more items, ultimately bringing our table spread to "way more than we can/should eat". It's not surprising that they'd have a minimum, but I would've rather they just charged a fee (not a large one, of course) than make us order more food.
- yolk
Over the course of the night, I ate...all the meat, a lot of the vegetables (mainly spinach and cabbage, although there was a nice chunk of taro thrown in there), some rice noodles, some yam noodles, some rice, and of course, FREE EGGS. Throwing in the soup and our drinks, we were all stuffed by the end.
- the damage
My part of the meal cost $25, which isn't really that bad. I probably made a mess, flinging stuff into the pot, and I did eat a lot, but there's no way the experience was really worth $25. Looking at the bill, wouldn't it have made most sense if we just all got a set meal? (shrugs) Anyway, it was cool to try once, but when I realized I paid for ingredients (fresh, nicely prepared ones) that I could cook myself because that's a novel experience that I don't already do enough in my own kitchen (of course, there are perks to doing it in a restaurant where someone will clean up after you, among other things), I thought it wasn't really "worth it", kind of like the Fat Witch brownie I ate the other day that disappointed me.
...Wow, I sound really unenthusiastic in this entry so far. SORRY! Okay! How can I make this more exciting? [injects glucose into bloodstream] Uhh....uhhh. Um.
I'd so rather spend $25 at Sugar Sweet Sunshine than on a shabu shabu meal. Of course, I know that's absolutely insane and would never do it...[thinks]...yes, neeever...do...it...glucose...but anyway, despite that we were all pretty full, we hauled our full stomachs to Sugar Sweet Sunshine. If it were any closer, I'd probably waddle there every day.
- yum yum bar?
Since I'm on a horribly planned mission (a plan to become diseased?) to try everything in Sugar Sweet Sunshine, I got a "yum yum bar" (which may or may not be the real name, although I don't think the name is "doom fudge waddle bar", as appropriate as that may be), which consists of a base of shortbread cookie, covered with chocolate ganache/fudgey substance, covered with a layer of raspberry jelly, covered (yes, I need a thesaurus) with some crumbly stuff (...yeah, I really need one). Result: DELICIOUSNESS! Duh. This wasn't a "whoa I need another one now" moment since I don't actually like raspberry and chocolate (I prefer any nut and chocolate combination to fruit and chocolate and for some reason find raspberry and chocolate most distasteful...which can get annoying since I may be one of 10 people in the world who feel this way). However, my mission requires that I try everything, unless I think it will absolutely repulse me...but in that case it wouldn't be in Sugar Sweet Sunshine. So. I will try everything; just give me time.
- Deb's Delectables
I won this box of Deb's Delectables chocolates from Deb for A Menu For Hope. Look at that layer of chocolates and multuply it by three, since that's how many are actually in the box. My assumption is that I didn't have a lot of competition or else I wouldn't have won the box. WHY WOULD MORE PEOPLE NOT GO FOR THIS? Obviously, it was one of the best prizes ("chocolate coma in a box") and I daresay gives me some Jersey pride (...I said wuh?) for Deb being based in NJ. I've seriously eaten about 15 of these already, so obviously they're good. Crisp smooth chocolate, a little sweeter than others I've had, and a wide variety of fillings (caramel, marzipan, coconut, almond, the good kind of peanut butter cream [if that distinction helps you], orange cream, and some others I can't remember) add up to "THIS IS WHY I ATE 15 PIECES ALREADY". Buy some and try em for yourself!
Posted by roboppy at 11:56 PM
Comments (5)
didn't you also win something else miss queenie? lucky duck. lucky waddling duck. i'm with you, i don't understand the whole pay-to-cook-your-own-meal thing (shabu shabu, hot rocks, s'mores, raclette, fondue), it's such a racket. they should be paying us for the labour. and not just in free eggs.
I love hot pot (Shabu Shabu, whatever you want to call it) at home. It's one of the yearly family meals I look foward to. You gather around with your family and the activity of it can be such a bonding experience. Plus, the variety of food is better :-) Your mom always knows your favorites.
I've had Shabu Shabu many times in Taiwan (and once in flushing) with friends but it's not the same as doing it at home.
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I've only ever had shabu shabu once in a restaurant (someone else was paying), but several times at home. Get an electric fondue pot, boil some beef stock in it. Then, get your vegetables (I take baby carrots and use a vegetable peeler to get little shavings, and I also use broccoli, sugar snap peas, cabbage, and whatever). Then, get a very nice steak from the butcher, put it in the freezer for about 45 minutes, and slice it as thin as you can with a sharp knife. I use the fondue forks for simplicity, put out a few dipping sauces I might be in the mood for (could be barbecue sauce, could be horseradish, could be terriyaki), and shabu- it up. It's delicious, and you can feed 4-6 people for the same $25,
Posted by: Steve at January 8, 2006 12:32 AM [#]