Sichuan Hot Pot Set for 2

Hot Pot meal is good for people who enjoy spending time around the dining table. It is relaxing and fun, however keeps you busy though in doing the cooking yourself.

Over the Easter holidays, I found a Sichuan restaurant with attractive holiday lunch sets.  So after the set lunch, we went to try out the hot pot set.  It was equally good.

The booth we had was very spacious and comfortable for two.  There was no real fire.  The hot pot was set on an electric stove.  We were offered a small side table to ensure that our main dining table won't be too messy.

As for soup base, we can choose between plain version and spicy.  Well, Sichuan spicy soup can be VERY spicy, so we went for the plain version.  In fact there were quite a lot of ingredients inside - tofu, mushrooms, turnip etc.  If you want to try both, you can pay an extra $10 for the dual soup style.

While the soup boils, we had to collect the soy sauce and any other seasoning of our choice.  There were a great many choices for us to pick.

Here's the menu

Suchuan Hot Pot Set for 2

Beef Chuck & Blade (8 pcs) 美國雪花肥牛

Iberian Pork or Sliced Lamb (4 pcs) 西班牙黑豚肉或羊肉片

Chicken (4 pcs) 鮮雞件

Grass Carp Belly or Sliced Grass Carp (4 pcs) 鮮鯇魚骨腩或鮮鯇魚片

Beef Tripe (4 pcs) 白毛肚

Mushroom Ball + Fish Ball (4 each) 香菇貢丸, 潮州白魚丸

Enko Mushroom + Chinese Lettuce + Sweet Corn 金菇菜, 唐生菜, 甜粟米

Homemade Dumplings (4 pcs) 家鄉抄手

Sichuan Flat Noddles or Vermicelli or Instant Noodles 四川紹粉或龍口粉絲或公仔面

Complimentary Roseller Drink (2 glasses)

These cool drinks were just good to balance the heat from the hot pot.  I like it.  (See top photo - the tall glass next to the hot pot)

Sweet Potato Soup

To wrap up the meal, we had two desserts which were also free.  Quite an old fashion Hong Kong style dessert.  Just didn't expect to have this in a Sichuan restaurant.  After all, we were extremely full and happy.  I generally eat one meal a day, but my friend also gave up dinner!

Hot Pot Set for 2: HK$168

Cost of Tea: HK$12 per person

Service charge:  10%

Total:  HK$211.12 (US$27)

Sichuan Paradise

3/F One Capital Place

18 Luard Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Tel:  2205-0020

Hong Kong Food Blog - Sichuan Hot Pot

Japanese Hot Pot in Hong Kong

If you love Japanese hot pot, this place is highly recommended.  I found it on an internet search and notice it has a lot of great reviews.  So we decided to give it a try.  They are specialised in hot pot and skewing.  It was expensive but the food was really good.  I was told that they were the pioneer in introducing one-person-one-pot into Hong Kong.  We were able to choose our own soup base and do the cooking and eating at our own pace. 

They mainly sell two dinner sets - seafood and A5 Wagyu (80 gram/150 gram), rest on a la carte.  Both included starter, vegetables, clam or miso soup, udon or noodle of your choice, soup base of your choice and dessert.  My friend is a seafood fan and I’m a beef fan, so both of us had our favourite foods. 

 

My 80-gram A5 Wagyu

The A5 Waygu are flown in from Kyushu, Japan everyday. It was lucky I ordered 80 gram, otherwise I should not be able to finish the 150 gram along with the vegetables and noodles.  80 gram is approximately 4 sheets of little blankets 10x20mm and 2-3mm thick.  It’s really silky smooth and worth the price.  My friend’s seafood was also brilliant, tiger prawns, giant scallop and oysters.  She’s oyster allergic, so they swap with scallops for her. 

 

My Friend's Seafoods

Vegetables gave us a balance of diet.  The whole meal was actually quite healthy.  But we had no choice, everybody were given the same basket of vegetables.  Anyway they were the vegetables that I love.

The 20-seat restaurant is small but comfortable.  The whole restaurant was tailored for hot pot.  Everyone sit around a rectangular table surrounding the service area.  This makes service easy, but communications difficult if you have a group of more than two people.  Luckily we had four pairs of people in the restaurant, all were not loud people.  So we had a peaceful and lovely dinner, though pricy.

Katte Shabu Shabu 勝手

G/F, 5 Caroline Hill Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Tel:  852-2577-2628

Booking recommended

Travel instruction:  MTR Causeway Bay Exit ‘F’.  Walk through Yan Ping Road along Caroline Centre, cross Leighton Road and walk into Caroline Hill Road.  About 5 minute walk from MTR exit. 

 

Seafood Set:

HK$480 (app. US$61.5)

 

A5 Wagyu Set:

HK$350 (app. US$44.9) - 80 gram

HK$600 (app. US$76.9) - 150 gram

 

10% service charge

 

Hong Kong Food Blog - Japanese Hot Pot

Mutton Hot Pot - Hong Kong Cantonese Style

It's freezing! Temperature in Hong Kong is dropping these days. We have only 9 degrees today. Time to enjoy hot pot.

Mutton hot pot is one of Hong Kong Cantonese' favourites in cold winter days. Unlike the mutton hot pot in Beijing where you dip the thin slices of mutton into hot water to do the actual cooking, the Hong Kong Cantonese style mutton hot pot is already cooked. However it is served on real fire to keep the heat.

A typical hot pot set comes with the main hot pot and a dish of green vegetable, usually lettuce. My set costs HK$98 + 10% service fee. Some restaurant may sell it at a lower price however charge the vegetables separately. So you have an option of paying less if you don't want to have the vegetables. Believe me, 9 out 10 guests would love to have some vegetable after the hot pot. As they were cooked in the mutton soup, the lettuce becomes extremely delicious.

A special dish of sauce is served with mutton, just to make it less smelly and more delicious. The hot pot usually has some mushroom, water chestnuts and tofu sheets as accessories. They are perfect combinations making the whole set very yummy and most important of all - keeping us warm.

Hong Kong Food Blog - Mutton Hot Pot

Hot Pot Specialty Restaurants in Hong Kong

Restaurant name: Little Fat Cow小肥牛火鍋活魚專門店
Restaurant address: 141 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Restaurant telephone: 852- 25290660
Cost: HK$280 (US$35.8), all inclusive for two people

In Hong Kong, some hot pot restaurants have specialties. Little Fat Sheep is famous for lamp hot pot; Little Fat Cow is famous for beef hot pot; Tanyoto (Tam's Fish Head) is famous for giant fish head. If you want to enjoy a delightful hot pot meal, better go to specialty shops where their table settings and ventilation systems are all set.

There are other hot pot restaurants charging a fix price and you can eat all you can. Of course, you would have to comprise on food quality, service and everything.

The other day I went to Little Fat Cow. Their special offer was only HK$10. We ordered the best deals on the menu - local beef (HK$28) and beef in Huadiao wine (HK$18). You can also order beef from overseas like Canada, USA, Australia or Japan which costs up to HK$88 per dish.

Neck Beef - Special Offer HK$10 (US$1.3) 牛頸脊

Beef in Huadiao Wine - HK$18 (US$2.3) 花雕肥牛

Local Beef - HK$28 (US$3.6) 本地肥牛
We can turn this big lump of prawn's meat into
small balls to cook in the hot pot
Prawn's Meat - HK$55 (US$7) 蝦膠

For the soup base, I always go for vanilla,

although there were other choices.

Even so, I have tofu and some vegetable

as accessories in the soup base.

Cooking in the Hot Pot

Little Fat Cow has seven branches in Hong Kong.

Opens daily between 6pm and 3am (Wanchai shop).

Advance booking is advised.

Hong Kong Food Blog - Hot Pot Restaurants

Chinese New Year Eve Hot Pot Dinner 2008

Dinner date: February 6, 2008
Occasion: Chinese New Year Eve Dinner
Number of People: Two
Cost: HK$590 (US$75.6), inclusive of 10% service charge
Restaurant name: Tanyoto Restaurant Hong Kong Branch
Restaurant address: 129-135 Johonston Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Restaurant telephone: 852-2893-9268
Anna's comment: Hong Kong has been continuously freezing. We’ve decided to go for an authentic Sichuan spicy hot pot dinner on our new year eve, but had to book a week in advance. Nothing is better than a spicy hot pot dinner to keep warm. As the name of this Sichuan restaurant denotes – Tanyoto (Tam’s Fish Head) - we ordered the signature dish of fish head which was extremely smooth and yummy. Our five-course hot pot dinner menu included:
* Fish Head
* Sliced Fish Fillet
* Giant American Oyster
* Sliced Beef
* Vegetable

Soup Base - Dual Style - Fish Soup/Spicy Soup 鴛鴦湯底　魚湯，麻辣湯

Tomato soup is also very popular 蕃茄湯都好多人要

Signature Dish - Fish Head 譚魚頭，是這裏的招牌菜

Sliced Fish Fillet 龍躉魚片

Giant Oyster 美國桶豪

Sliced Beef　手切肥牛

Vegetable　皇帝菜
波菜未有拍照 Seasoning Bowl　味碗，每位１０元

Soup base is added to the bowl

熱騰騰的火煱，保暖最好!　不過要成個禮拜前訂枱
Video - Boiling soup - best to keep warm

Hong Kong has been between 8°C and 10°C in the past two weeks.

We are struggling to keep warm, hot pot is one of the best way.

看看火煱如何熱辣辣

Hong Kong Chinese New Year 2008