Shabu Shabu

One of the delights of Taiwan cuisine is shabu shabu hot pot. One orders a meal that one cooks oneself in a little pot of boiling broth set into the table. There are many choices for the type of meal you can order, ranging from beef, pork, chicken, fish, shellfish, etc. The meal comes with a plate of your chosen meat, plus another plate that has a variety of things to cook, and you can order extra meat or other things on the side, if you wish.

Last night I went with Li Hua and Tony to the restaurant close to my house, and the three of us ate until stuffed for only $20 US (and that included a large bottle of Taiwan Gold Medal beer). I ordered the chicken, and with it I got some cabbage, some sort of green that was similar to bok choy, a shrimp, some taro, winter melon, a couple kinds of tofu, small piece of corn on the cob, fish balls, enoki and shitake mushrooms, crab meat, rice, and a few other things I can't really explain because I don't know what they're called, just that they're tasty! It's a little warm to eat like this in the summer, since you have the boiling liquid right in front of you, but it's sure fun. I prefer the type of hot pot that has hot & spicy liquid to cook in, where you pick out what you want from a buffet-type setup, but this one was very good, and I'm sure I'll be going back to that place frequently!