One of my guilty pleasures is eating hotpot style. The thing about hotpot is that it is best when it is shared with a friend. Most of them are setup AYCE and so you better come hungry.
There is one that is close to me, HotPot on Yonge and I enjoyed a meal there one day with my friend Jojo. We spent most of the day taking pictures of his interior designs and it was our reward for our job well done. It is literally just a hop and skip away, it is the best place to be when you want to hang out and take your time with a friend.
The restaurant was already half full when we walked in but we didn’t really had a problem securing a table. I normally go safe with the broth and I just picked a simple one. Going through the long list of possibilities, we load on the strips of chicken, beef and pork, cuttlefish balls, sausage, shrimp, mushrooms and tofu, and lots and lots of watercress. I don’t know what it is about watercress but I literally just keep on shoving piles of it into the rolling boil of our soup and it wilts just like spinach. As we waited for our fresh ingredients, they actually provide free appetizers. I find it almost too indulgent. I don’t think I need any more incentive than the food I was about to eat. But it was crunchy and nice, so yes, I did finish it.
As we cooked the food, we also made our own concoctions of dipping sauces. They have the components of a perfect sauce available to you, you can literally do it to your own comforts. Mine is a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and scallions. Picking up some meat and veggies, that nutty-saltiness completes that perfect bite.
When we were done having a good fill of a hotpot meal, I was stuffed and sleepy. But we were good and we walked it off a bit. Jojo and I never really run out of things to talk about. We can just go on and on until we say our goodbyes. Writing about that day makes me want to go back in there once again. Maybe a call to Jojo is in order. ;)
Food Trippin' 
Posted on April 19, 2016
0