Hot Pot Heaven

This is something I want to try at home: hot pot cooking.

We had a delicious, fun and healthy late lunch at Hot Pot Heaven in Kailua, Hawaii. 

We had driven down the windy coastal road to Kailua because I was out of books. (I prefer a real book to an e-reader.) We were surprised to find Kailua to be a large mini-city with a Target, Whole Foods and lots of restaurants and little shops. Their small bookstore is called Bookends and was a mix of used and new with piles of books everywhere. Took me a while to make my choices so we were hungry afterwards. 

We googled and wandered around until I happened to see a 4.9 rating for Hot Pot Heaven. You would never guess it would be so good from its looks. But that’s the way many places are on Oahu. 

We’ve never gone to a hot pot place before. Our server was so nice and helpful. You pick a broth.

He brings it steaming hot out to your table’s electric hot plate. 

You pick ingredients from a bank of refrigerators. As many as you want. 

You are charged by the plate and its color. Shrimp, for example, is blue and costs more than the yellow plate of  broccoli. 

We chose

CANH CHA

“Their take on the beloved Vietnamese sweet and sour soup. Chicken broth sweetened with pineapple, tomato & taro stem. Garnished with spring onion and Thai basil.”

And shrimp, broccoli, mushrooms, fresh soba noodles, spinach and veggie dumplings. 

Cook your ingredients in the broth then ladle them out into your bowl. And add condiments like hot sauce or miso sauce. They had a variety. We cooked the dumplings first. While the broccoli and mushrooms cooked longer. Then our shrimp with spinach for about 3 minutes. Noodles went in last for about 5 minutes. We finished the broth which became even more concentrated—-and delicious.  It was sweet and sour at the same time. 

Or you can put it all in at once.There did not seem to be a right or wrong way to cook a hot pot meal. 

So, I’ve done some googling this morning on the sweet and sour broth —-and it could be tricky to find the traditional Vietnamese ingredients at home in rural New York state— but I will adapt, as I usually do. We have an electric warmer that Tom’s mother gave us years ago that I think will work. 

It was the shabu-shabu style cooking at the table that we really enjoyed. It was so much fun— we both like to cook— and this way we can do it together. 

B