Tonight I ate out with an old friend I haven't seen for ten years, although we have communicated with each other on-line occasionally over the years. She was in town on business and we met at a local restaurant, I arrived still feeling full from a large sushi/sashimi lunch with another friend, but hey ho!
We had hot pot.
We started with this pot of white pork broth containing huge marrow bones (骨 髓 白 汤 煲 gú suǐ bái tāng bào). Gloves are provided to help you deal with getting the meat off the bones, but mostly it's just a gnawing experience. Nothing refined or dainty. Drinking straws are also provided for sucking out that marrow, but first we drank some of the soup. The broth also contained water chestnuts, Delicious.
Then a dish of .steamed shrimp with garlic chives arrived (韭香生焗虾 jiǔ xiāng shēng jú xiā). These were sweet and spicy. My friend, who ordered the dish, announced she doesn't eat seafood, so I got them all to myself. Happiness!
Some sweet yellow bean paste buns (麦香包 mài xiāng bāo) were next to arrive: Cake in the middle of dinner isn't uncommon.
Then we started cooking stuff in the soup base, which was topped up regularly by attentive staff. We threw in these rolls of fatty beef (肥牛卷 féi niú juǎn) which cook instantly. Below them are slices of daikon radish (白萝卜 bái luó bó) which also went in but took longer to cook.
And some enoki mushrooms
Finally a plate of stir fried Chinese lettuce (油麻菜 yóu má cài).
My friend also presented me with a big bag of wood ear fungus and a similar bag of dried shiitake.
A good time was had.
