I'm obsessed with hotpot. I went a couple of times with family when I was a small kid, and I remember the sights of the bright red shabu-shabu sliced meats, the perfectly scored calamari bodies, the head-on shrimp with their beady eyes, and the mountains of vegetables to select.
I recently went to a hot pot with my hubby and son and it was great, except the son only ate 3 pieces of sushi. Luckily the son ate for free! We all had a blast, then later we had some trouble walking home because of our full tummies, and we all smelled like barbeque.
After reading an article in the SF Chronicle about hotpot, we decided to try it at home. The hubby went shopping on Clement street for all the ingredients, head-on shrimp, clams, blue crab, chicken thigh, sukiyaki sliced beef, cellophane noodles, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, Hinoichi tofu (my fave tofu brand), green onions, bok choy....
We took out our portable electric one burner stove and went looking throught the cabinets for the perfect sized pot. Then the cooking began. We actually did two sessions, the first one being like a seafood yosenabe from 6-7:30 PM, and the second session like a beef sukiyaki from 9:30 to 11 PM .
Yum Yum!!!
Driving the windward coastline of Oahu, one passes numerous shrimp trucks. My family doesn't stop until we get to Romy's, where the line is sooo.... long. The garlic shrimp are worth the wait, with its yummy stir-fried chopped garlic (the cooks here are not shy with the garlic! ) and perfectly cooked sweet shrimp meat, with the shell on. Served with two scoops of rice, it makes a great roadside meal.
