ottawa foodies

Or... you can go even cheaper which is what many Chinese families do and that is to buy an indoor butane burner!

I've been eating at Mongolian Hot Pot Mongolian Hot Pot a couple of times a week lately. It's close to work and for $13 I think it's a pretty good deal.

But I'm thinking it would be fun to make it at home. It's not complicated cooking.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot

If you search on ebay you will see induction cooking units costing thousands but I found some sellers in BC and Ontario that sell refurbished units (some Chinese made, some German made – with good user reviews for both on the web) for about $80 - $120, with power in the 1400w to 1500w range. That should be fine for home use.


tinyurl.com/aanb4o


The premise is simple - a savory stock, meats sliced paper thin, vegetables. Cook very quickly so flavor is preserved. I don't think exact recipes need to be followed, latitude is definitely open for creativity.

A Chinese friend told me it's the most widespread cooking method in the country (methods like stir frying may be popular in some areas, but hot pot is popular everywhere).

Here's May's seperate Hot Pot Menu.

For a clear copy, send me a message, at my profile, with your email address and I'll send ya the full size scan.

BTW: Had lunch special there today.... Hot and Sour Soup with Kung Pao Chicken on Rice. Not too shabby.

May's husband, the head chef, is really friendly. He'll come out of the kitchen and talk to diners, at a drop of a hat.

Tried their fondu hot pot which is a rich broth with shrimp paste (I think) - very flavourful. We got the one with vegetables and beef, chicken, shrimp, scallop, squid. It was fantastic. The flavour lingered and left me wanting to overstuff myself. Served with noodles.

I have eaten at the Hot Pot twice now and both times I loved it. Great selection and very yummy.

Note - I prefer the small pots so that I don't have to choose the same food as my lunch buddies.

Our team from work went for lunch on Thursday 05 Feb, and it was excellent. Good food, good quantities, good quality. And, it's a fun, new experience!

I drove by the place yesterday, the paper on the windows was peeled down and you could see the waitstaff and chef talking, possibly even tasting their food.

As of this morning, everything seemed set to open as the inside appears prepped, cleaned and in order. I would predict this weekend, if not tonight.

Said hot pot looked like this! I know The picture doesn't look like much, but this should give you an idea of the size.

I had the kimchi, pork dumpling, pork and tofu hotpot. At $26 for 2 people (would have been enough for 3), we had a big pot of spicy(ish) broth filled with tasty pork dumplings, tender seasoned pork, mushrooms (one big chunk of enoki mushrooms, easy to avoid if you're not a fan but they were tasty), lots of kimchi and 2 slices of soft tofu. We had sides of rice, sprouded beans, kimchi and marinated radish (?). It was delicious!

we ate here tonite. here's the website: www.koreanpalace.ca/
they have a menu on it and everything. prices are a bit expensive for quite a few things, but what we ordered was not too badly priced. we had the bulgogi HOT POT.. which was actually called "BEEF JEONGJOL".. 25 bucks total for 2 people. includes rice and kimchi too. it was very tasty. definitely coming back for more!

In addition to a base price, every item you choose will costs an additional $1.99 to 7.99 depending on what it is (mushrooms, tofu, lettuce, meat balls, fish balls, sliced beef, lamb, etc). The items are then stir fried in a Northern Chinese style hot sauce. It can also come in a soup (hot pot style). Steamed rice is ordered separately.

My friends and I really enjoyed the flavours and like that it is a very different dinner option in the downtown core. We will be back.