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Shabu Shabu Hong Kong?


Portia_Smith

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A quick question as we are flying back to to the UK via Hong Kong tomorrow and I have a sudden and very very strong craving for Shabu Shabu - does anyone on this forum have any recommendations for this in Hong Kong. I have noted that a previous poster has said that the 'Inagaku' restuarant at one of the Kowloon hotels is excellent, and a brief look at their website confirms they are doing a pork winter style hot pot - but I'm looking for something beefy and full of winter veg..

By the way - all the previous recommendations from people were really helpful for our stopover in November and i'll be sure to post them on my return to england.

thanks!

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Wow - all you can eat shabu shabu! sounds fabulous - how do they do that? do they just keep loading your iron pot with broth and giving you extra veggies and meat? or is it pre cooked by the kitchen staff? do you have an address??

the problem with hong kong is that i only have 3 days there - that's only 9 meals..plus some snacks.. and there's just too much too eat!

thanks for responding!

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You can order plates of whatever you want, however, you are charged by weight for whatever you have left uneaten at the end of the meal. The broth is also periodically topped up by roving waiters with big kettles.

The place is located in Ma On Shan shopping centre, way out in the sticks.

PS: I am a guy.

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[...I have a sudden and very very strong craving for Shabu Shabu - does anyone on this forum have any recommendations for this in Hong Kong.

Isn't Shabu Shabu the Japanese' equivalent of the Chinese "hot pot" ("Da Been Lo" in Cantonese)? Or are they very different?

With Chinese (Cantonese) hot pot, we put raw meats/seafood (e.g. sliced beef, chicken, lamb, shrimp, crab, squid, oyster, clam, beef/shrimp/octopus/fish-balls) and vegetables (e.g. lettuce, napa cabbage, Chinese broccoli, yau choy, bak choy, or whatever is in season), along with tofu and soaked mung bean thread in the boiling broth. Is this very different from Shabu Shabu?

If you like Cantonese hot pot, then they are everywhere in Hong Kong. You can probably find plenty of hot pot restaurants in Kowloon, Wan Chai and Causeway Bay and no need to go to Shatin.

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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[...I have a sudden and very very strong craving for Shabu Shabu - does anyone on this forum have any recommendations for this in Hong Kong.

Isn't Shabu Shabu the Japanese' equivalent of the Chinese "hot pot" ("Da Been Lo" in Cantonese)? Or are they very different?

With Chinese (Cantonese) hot pot, we put raw meats/seafood (e.g. sliced beef, chicken, lamb, shrimp, crab, squid, oyster, clam, beef/shrimp/octopus/fish-balls) and vegetables (e.g. lettuce, napa cabbage, Chinese broccoli, yau choy, bak choy, or whatever is in season), along with tofu and soaked mung bean thread in the boiling broth. Is this very different from Shabu Shabu?

If you like Cantonese hot pot, then they are everywhere in Hong Kong. You can probably find plenty of hot pot restaurants in Kowloon, Wan Chai and Causeway Bay and no need to go to Shatin.

Yeah, they are similar. I've never eaten shabu shabu in Japan but the ones I've tasted in Hong Kong made me think I'd rather have Chinese hotpot - the Japanese version is not as flavourful and it's much more expensive.

There are plenty of places to try here in all areas of Hong Kong; even "regular" restaraurants add it to their menus during the winter months (except that it doesn't really feel like winter - it's 23 degrees Celsius/74 degrees Farenheit right now). There are many styles to choose from, and all places offer several types of broths. If you want something closest to shabu shabu, try a clear Cantonese broth, rather than satay style or Taiwanese/Sichuanese.

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Isn't Shabu Shabu the Japanese' equivalent of the Chinese "hot pot" ("Da Been Lo" in Cantonese)?  Or are they very different?

With Chinese (Cantonese) hot pot, we put raw meats/seafood (e.g. sliced beef, chicken, lamb, shrimp, crab, squid, oyster, clam, beef/shrimp/octopus/fish-balls) and vegetables (e.g. lettuce, napa cabbage, Chinese broccoli, yau choy, bak choy, or whatever is in season), along with tofu and soaked mung bean thread in the boiling broth.  Is this very different from Shabu Shabu?

I've never had Chinese "hot pot", but as far as I know, the two are similar but not really the same. With Japanese shabu shabu, you usually just briefly dip the food item into the broth--just long enough to cook it (some vegetables get left in a bit longer, though). Then you dip it in some sort of sauce, and that's where the flavouring comes in. The broth, itself, isn't supposed to be the main flavouring component. The most common sauces are goma (my personal favourite) and maybe ponzu?

I think in theory, Japanese nabe might be more similar to the Chinese "hot pot" in that everything is cooked in the pot, so they add more flavour to the broth.

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Isn't Shabu Shabu the Japanese' equivalent of the Chinese "hot pot" ("Da Been Lo" in Cantonese)?  Or are they very different?

With Chinese (Cantonese) hot pot, we put raw meats/seafood (e.g. sliced beef, chicken, lamb, shrimp, crab, squid, oyster, clam, beef/shrimp/octopus/fish-balls) and vegetables (e.g. lettuce, napa cabbage, Chinese broccoli, yau choy, bak choy, or whatever is in season), along with tofu and soaked mung bean thread in the boiling broth.   Is this very different from Shabu Shabu?

I've never had Chinese "hot pot", but as far as I know, the two are similar but not really the same. With Japanese shabu shabu, you usually just briefly dip the food item into the broth--just long enough to cook it (some vegetables get left in a bit longer, though). Then you dip it in some sort of sauce, and that's where the flavouring comes in. The broth, itself, isn't supposed to be the main flavouring component. The most common sauces are goma (my personal favourite) and maybe ponzu?

I think in theory, Japanese nabe might be more similar to the Chinese "hot pot" in that everything is cooked in the pot, so they add more flavour to the broth.

Oh, this is interesting. I wondered why the shabu shabu broth was so... subtle.

In Chinese hotpot, some of the ingredients are dipped briefly into the broth (they're sliced very thin so take only seconds to cook); other ingredients (such as innards and dumplings) are cooked for longer. After they're taken from the broth, you can put them in a dipping sauce. The most basic sauce is just soy sauce and chillies and sesame oil. Some restaurants pride themselves on the number of ingredients available to create your own sauce. A Sichuanese restaurant, Man Jiang Hong, has at least 20 ingredients including raw garlic, fried garlic, vinegar, raw sesame seeds, toasted sesame seeds, sesame seed paste, sesame oil, soy sauce, raw chilli, chilli paste, chilli oil... Making your own concoction is part of the fun although there are other restaurants I prefer (for hotpot anyway) to Man Jiang Hong.

At the end of the meal the soup - which has all the flavours of everything cooked in it - is eaten with rice or noodles, at least if it's a clear broth (wouldn't recommend this with Taiwanese/Sichuanese soup bases; the heat would be overwhelming).

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I've never had Chinese "hot pot", but as far as I know, the two are similar but not really the same.  With Japanese shabu shabu, you usually just briefly dip the food item into the broth--just long enough to cook it (some vegetables get left in a bit longer, though).  Then you dip it in some sort of sauce, and that's where the flavouring comes in.  The broth, itself, isn't supposed to be the main flavouring component.  The most common sauces are goma (my personal favourite) and maybe ponzu?

I think in theory, Japanese nabe might be more similar to the Chinese "hot pot" in that everything is cooked in the pot, so they add more flavour to the broth.

From these descriptions, I don't see Chinese "hot pot" and Japanese Shabu Shabu being all that different. We also briefly dip the raw meat into the broth, just long enough to cook it. We dip the meat in the sauce/dip too. There are many dips we can choose from: simply light soy sauce with sliced chilies, or satay sauce, or other mix and match sauces made with hoisin, fermented tofu, etc.. Some people like to add a raw egg to the dip to smooth out the "yang" (the "fire") in eating hot meat right off the pot.

Adding more flavor to the broth is a consequence of dipping meat into the broth, not the goal.

At the end, like aprilmei said, we put in the soaked mung bean threads or noodles to fill our stomach.

So... while in Hong Kong, why not try out the genuine Chinese "hot pot" which are available everywhere, instead of going out of the way to seek for a Hong Kongers' rendition of the Japanese Shabu Shabu? :smile:

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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I would find it hard to compare much of the Japanese hotpots to what is available in China, or HK for that matter.. Too much variety on this side. The northern vs southern is only one large grouping, but also the more broth-dependent inner mongolian.. like xiaofeiyang for instance. I'm not sure if they have a branch in HK, but the Shanghai and Beijing branches are outstanding while never being too spicy. That being said, I still think some of the southern style hotpots are brilliantly simple often without relying at all on a dipping sauce either. By contrast the japanese ones are quite bland, and almost a totally different species.

While you are in HK check out Gecko bar! great jazz... no shabu shabu though.

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Thanks to everyone who responded to my query.. I had intended to try both chinese hot pot and shabu shabu whilst in Hong Kong - I think it was a goma craving I had that was making the latter quest so important to me! But as you can see from the story below.. we never quite made it to either..

We'd left Australia with my partner suffering from a mild flu ailment, and while we made it to dim sum for my birthday breakfast (afternoon tea at the peninsula and then shabu shabu were to be the remaining food treatsof the day!!) we then took the ferry to kowloon to go and check out the markets in mong kok.. and as we were walking up nathan road i noticed hubby going a bit green.. i whipped him into kowloon park where he got progressively paler and was positively midori coloured at this stage.. suddenly - he turns around and projectile hurls into the stormwater drain behind our seat. Cue evacuation of all nearby Hong Kongers in disgust while englishman heaves, and heaves and heaves and sweats and shakes...

It then occurs to me that we're quite close to Chungking mansions and they probably think the shaking lanky pale english dude is some kind of backpacking junkie who's having some kind of withdrawal/breakdown.

I manage to get him back to our hotel where the rest of the day and night is spent being violently ill in our bathroom - I was worried about dehydration so managed to get some salt and sugar and do some home made dehydration salts and was kept busy running back and forth to the local 7-11 for ginger ale, sprite and crackers...

So - I can't report back on either shabu shabu or hotpot - but I'm happy to say that I now have almost the entire 7-11 'dogs club' paper dog collection for Lunar New Year!

With regards to hubbys sickness - it could have been food poisoning - although I ate identical food at dim sum and at dinner the night before and was fine - he did have a mango juice earlier that morning.. Also, he did have a slight touch of the flu which might have just pushed him over the edge. The worst thing is that he doesn't think he can ever have dim sum again!! AAAAAAARGH!!

We will return though - and by god i'm going to that all you can eat place!

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Sorry to hear that, Portia. Hope your hubby is doing well now. Food poisoning is a real bummer when you are on a trip. Before we got married, my wife visited me in Hong Kong a few times and one time she ended up lying on the bed for a good 4-5 days. So I can relate to your incident. Since that experience, she is very alert of what to eat/drink while on a trip. Different individuals have different tolerance to bacteria and other things in the food. Some can get violently illed and some... nothing happens.

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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thank you for the good wishes.. he's much better now. although he admitted on saturday that he might not ever be able to handle dumplings ever again which is almost a marriage breaker!

we'll be back in hong kong next winter i hope - so i'll be trying out both the hot pot and the shabu shabu then - can't wait!

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awww....i'm sorry your husband had such a bad experience. :sad: the same thing happened to me when i was in hong kong. after spending the day running in and out of restaurants, malls, trains, etc., i got sick and vomited at the train station. i blame the combination of extreme heat/humidity (it was summer) with extremely cold air conditioning, and the strawberry juice with milk that i had had earlier that day.

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