TacoCat's TrEats #209: Hearty Hotpot for Birthday Dinner! 🍲
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Hey Steemit!
My birthday was 2 months ago and since both Sean and my birthdays are quite close together, we always manage to pool our birthday vouchers together for a big meal! This time we decided to try this Thai hotpot called Suki Suki Hotpot!
I think everyone should know what hotpot is by now especially with the popularity of Haidilao hotpot, but just in case, Hotpot or steamboat, is a dish of soup stock, kept simmering by a heat source on the table, accompanied by an array of raw meats and vegetables which diners dip and cook in the broth. The cooked pieces are dipped into dipping sauces for additional flavor.
Source: asiancookingmom
It's a very popular dish these days especially here in Singapore, with many different types of hotpot cuisines and restaurants all over the country. It's also fairly easy to make at home since all you really need is a big pot, raw veggies and meat and a soup base. It's also a very common dish to have during New Year gatherings. As such, Haidilao and some other big brands even sell their own unique soup bases in supermarkets for people to make at home.
Source: szuwk store
Anyway, here's what the interior of Suki Suki Hotpot looks like! It's quite a big restaurant with tables lining the sides and the buffet ingredients in a chiller island in the middle.
This was a Thai hotpot buffet so we basically had 80 minutes to eat as much hotpot as we wanted! But since each table only gets 1 hotpot you could only choose 2 kinds of soup bases. Here's the menu of flavours they had including the sauces and meats you could order.
I think our vouchers could only afford us the basic meal which was their regular soups and fresh meat, not the premium selection. I guess we could top up some extra money for that but we didn't think it was necessary since most of the premium items were seafood which Sean doesn't like.
The restaurant was quite empty on a weekday night so we could choose whichever table we liked. We were shown to one of the booths in the middle of the restaurant.
After we each chose a soup base, we left the soup to boil and went to check out the buffet tables!
They had quite a decent selection of vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and processed meat like sausages, meatballs and fishcakes.
So the buffet was basically free flow on all the ingredients but you had to order the meat separately with the staff since they don't keep it outside on display, probably for food safety reasons.
There was of course a whole range of sauces and seasonings for you to dip your ingredients as well.
We each grabbed a bunch of different vegetables, fishcakes and meatballs before heading back to our table with our spread.
We also ordered a few different types of meat like Chicken Strips, Beef Short Rib and Chuck Roll Beef. It's a halal restaurant so they didn't have pork which is pretty common in other hotpot restaurants but it was fine with us.
After that we started dumping our raw ingredients into the pot to cook!
It technically was the night before my birthday but Sean wanted to get a nice picture of me. I also wore one of my favourite dresses since it was my birthday dinner here in Singapore! We were flying off on a trip on my actual birthday so this was the only time to celebrate at home.
Once the ingredients were cooked it was time to eat! We chose a neutral soup - the Nourishing Chicken and a spicy soup called Sawadee Tom Yum Goong since it's a Thai restaurant.
The meat cooks really quick in the broth so you only need to put it in there for maximum 10 seconds but the vegetables take a big longer if you want them to be soft. We tried each of the meats we ordered to see which was the best so we could order more of that.
I think the Beef Short Rib was the one we decided was the best one, and when dipped into some chili soy sauce it was delicious!
The other ingredients were pretty average since it's just store bought vegetables, tofu and fishcakes.
One of the other meats they had was Fish Paste which came in a tube. Initially we didn't know what to do with it but it also came with a plastic spoon so we figured we were supposed to scoop it out bit by bit and kind of make our own fishball. It was a little strange but it did taste like a normal fishball. Maybe just softer in texture.
The soups were both good, and I was quite hesitant on the Tom Yum soup since those tend to get quite sour but this one was quite pleasant. The chicken soup was very light and subtle but was good enough.
We enjoyed a very filling dinner and had quite a few rounds of meat and vegetables. I was so stuffed after that!
The back of the restaurant had the desserts like ice cream, jelly and fruits but it was only for those who decided to top up for extra free flow dinks and ice cream. We didn't choose that since I knew we'd be really full just from the hotpot.
After we were stuffed, we headed to the counter at the front of the restaurant to settle the bill and thanks to our birthday vouchers only had to pay for tax.
It was a very satisfying meal but we probably wouldn't spend actual money on it since the soup was nothing too special. The location is also not the most convenient but we did take a nice stroll through a park on the way back to the station after that to digest our food.
All in all, it was a very filling meal and we might come back again if the mood strikes since this is the nearest hotpot place to our house actually. Or we might just cook it at home with a soup base since that's technically cheaper. Either way, happy birthday to me!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
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