ShabuRo

Growing up, Hot Pot was a special occasion dinner we would have at home. A big pot of broth would sit simmering, center stage at our dinner table, fueled by a butane camper stove. A bounty of plates filled with food would surround this pot, waiting to be immersed in this simmering broth and then picked up with slotted ladles when it was sufficiently cooked. Mountains of freshly washed vegetables, all kinds of tofu, fish balls, dumplings, mushrooms, noodles, seafood, and thinly sliced meat would be rotated into the pot of broth in small portions, as we eagerly watch it cook in front of us. Back in the day, my parents would use a simple chicken broth for our hot pot and make a dipping sauce with fresh garlic, scallions, soy sauce, sesame oil and sacha sauce aka Chinese BBQ Sauce. After being stuffed beyond reason, I would always still have room for noodles. It was my ritual to boil my noodles in the broth, which by the end of the meal, would be so flavorful after simmering all the veggies, dumplings, seafood and meat, then piling the noodles on top of what was left of my dipping sauce and then ladling in some of that broth for a bowl of steaming hot soup noodles to top off my meal. So good.

When Alfred and I first started dating 20+ years ago, he lived in Boston at the time. He knew all the best places to eat, from fancy to hole-in-the-walls. Our favorite was Shabu Zen, in Boston, MA. (I just looked them up and they are still around!) A lot of hot pot restaurants have “Shabu” in its name. Shabu Shabu is the Japanese version of hot pot, but it’s still hot pot. You can come for me for saying this but as far as I’m concerned, it’s basically the same thing. After extensive research (3 minutes on Google), Shabu Shabu generally uses a milder broth and very thin cuts of meat where one takes a thin slice of meat in their chopsticks and swish it around in the simmering broth while it cooks. Me? I slide the whole plate of meat in. So whether you swish or slide, that’s still hot pot to me.

Alfred and I still have a lot of hot pot at home. When we go out for it, our favorite place is ShabuRo in Palisades Park, NJ. It’s a BYOB all-you-can-eat restaurant. We order the meats from the waiter and we get everything else we want ourselves. I’m like a kid in a candy store when I walk up to vegetable section. I love all leafy greens, from mild to bitter. I admit, when I grocery shop for home, I generally buy the same few types of vegetables like broccoli, napa, spinach and bok choy. I love the variation at ShabuRo and getting to visually pick what I want to try rather than ordering off of words on a menu.