Friday, February 20, 2009

Dolar Hot Pot Shop, Shanghai

I love steamboat especially so when the weather is cold. It is so comforting sitting around a hot stove surrounded by family and food. 
This is one of  Dolar chain stores that serves steamboat which in Shanghai, is called hotpot. The difference between this hotpot restaurant to the rest is that here each patron has the choice of his/her soup base which is served individually in a small pot with it's own small stove. Cool. Put in whatever your heart's desire and create a soup that is uniquely you. 

Seafood soup which actually has two baby hairy crabs about the size of a spoon. My choice, obviously.

A sour soup with preserved veggie, hum choi, Leanne's choice, obviously.

Heather had the mushroom soup which looked very yummy too, San San and hubby had mushroom and seafood too. 
This was also one of the very few places in China that I was told I could not take pictures but I managed a few stolen shots when the waitress was out of sight. Please excuse the
rather shoddy images as I had to snap quickly from where I sat. It was a pity as I only managed pictures at our own table and wasn't brave enough to venture to the sauce station where the culinary happenings were. The sauce station is where you, as a chef for the night, go to concoct a designer's, one-of-a-kind dipping sauce from an immense (sooo many, tooo many) variety of condiments. I was like a child in a candy store...didn't know where to start at first but once got started, couldn't stop...:p. My first sauce turned disastrous as I got too greedy and piled on everything. The good thing was, you could start all over again until you get the prefect sauce to complement your hot pot.  

Too impatient, added too many ingredients at one go and the slice of beef landed in a cold soup :O


One pot each, a tableful of food and a night of total indulgence.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

looks stupendous, delicious, and marvelous...

rule of thumb is must only eat on cold nights (a bit like BKT)

Iris and I also found a shop off the kesas highway behind happy gardens off old klang road, they have different types of soup stock, aside from the herbal one, they have the ginseng one, the peppery one (the one usually cooked with pork insides spare parts) and it was delish too.

I am very intriqued with the sauce station that you described tho, sounded really interesting.

a feast, everyday said...

Tt sounds like our BKT selection of soup stock.
The sauce station is something you got to see to believe...any sauce you can name they most probably have them.

a feast, everyday said...

Iris, did u do the crushed potatoes?? Let me know how they turn out and do I need to do a post on it? :D

Unknown said...

Hi, I will be trying it this weekend. Your instructions on the steps are very clear so I think I shouldn't have any problems.
Will keep you posted. And thanks for your generosity to share the recipe.
Best regards
Iris

artsario@gmail.com said...

Wah lau... the Ham choi soup looks sooo good laa!!.