shabu shabu

20Nov11

If you guessed Japanese you are right – it’s basically Japan’s version of fondue.

On Saturday night after Novemberfest Bec, Gus, Susan and I visited our local Shabu house on Mary street. Bec and I were ready for the challenge of a new dining experience, where as Susan and Gus were a bit sceptical at first – but then got right into it as well.

We started off with some tempura soft shell crab and some california rolls – both were excellent (both Bec and I agreed the best SS Crab we’ve ever had). Then it was down to the Shabu. To start you order your base soup, then pick what type of meat you want to drown. Most of us went for the beef and seafood, where as Susan just stuck with the beef.

The meat comes out raw – super finely sliced rolls of beef, and assorted seafood, as well as some noodles, ~~cardboard chunks~~ tofu, mushrooms and other random green stuff. The concept is easy – the soup sits on your own personal hotplate embedded into the table, and once boiling you add in what you want, and the pull out once cooked. The staff weren’t the friendliest, so it took us a few goes trying to interpret how it is all supposed to work, so instead made up our own style.

It seems our style of just chuck it in and see what happens is a little less than refined than the other, more experienced diners in the restaurant, but still we were the ones that seemed to be having all the fun – and given all the help from the staff what else could you expect!