Japanese hot pot

I've been meaning to post about the Japanese Hot Pot meal I had last weekend.  Some of you foodies out there may already know about this, but I had never heard of it so I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised!

Each table has a hot plate in it, and the idea is that you order your veggies and meat and cook it yourself - it's cooked by boiling.  I know what you're thinking - what's the point of eating out if you gotta cook the food yourself?!  I thought the same thing, but it's not like it's hard and it's a fun experience.  Having yet not seen much in the way of vegetables here, it was nice to have a big plate full!

Here are some pics - here is the warmer.

Then they bring out the big bowl with some seasoned water that you'll boil your food in. 

A nice variety of veggies - mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, pumpkin and carrots along with the tofu

Cook it up!  It only takes a few minutes.  You can also see in the upper right corner of this photo the meat that you can order with this - it's very thin sliced beef (which of course was put in the water after my veggies were done ;)

What makes the meal is the dipping sauces - add in some hot pepper for heat - delish!

Hungry yet?