An American In Taiwan

I had never been introduced to this wonderful dish before I met my girlfriend. She is a hotpot fanatic. Loves them. Could eat it for every meal. Even is okay with eating them alone (when in Taiwan).

For those who don’t know, “shabu shabu” is the Japanese term (an onomatopoeic word, incidentally) for what is essentially a large pot of boiling liquid (usually water or broth, but occasionally, in the case of Korean cuisine, can be something ridiculously spicy like chili oil), in which you dip strips of raw beef, uncooked shrimp, tofu and a host of veggies.

It is intensely healthy (assuming you don’t use the oil) as you can use the freshest vegetables, the finest cuts of meat (if you like), even go organic if you want. We usually have the thinly sliced beef, Napa cabbage, little mushrooms, udon noodles, with a nice, spicy dipping sauce.

I knew Shelly liked hotpots so much so I bought her a Zojirushi electric skillet that works as a hotpot. It’s really nice because we can move it wherever we want, like to the coffee table, and have better access to it.

Unfortunately, when you cook the beef, it tends to release a lot of “scum.” Think about when you’re boiling meat on the stove; the same principle applies. Unless you want that stuff all over your other food when you bring it out of the hotpot, it’s necessary to occasionally strain it off. Shelly picked up one of these the other day to make it easier:

Yay. :)

So, since it’s a healthier alternative to the crap I (we) usually eat, we’re doing it a bit more often. It’s also good for me to practice chopstick usage. Sometimes I’m good with them to the point that I surprise myself. Other times, I’m just as surprised but on the opposite end of the scale. Other times, well, I feel like I need an instruction booklet…

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have pictures of all sorts of exotic (to me, at least) hotpot ingredients when we get to Taiwan. All this talk about it has made me really hungry! I’m off to get my hotpot on!

Tags: Food, funny, informative

This entry was posted by 美國人 on Sunday, November 9th, 2008 at 18:06 and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.