Ming Yue Hot Pot 酩悦炭烧火锅, Shanghai
Traditional hot pot is used, not as a simple round bowl, but one with a small chimney on top. In the olden days, when electricity wasn’t available, people used to use charcoal and open fire flames to simmer their hot pots. The middle smoke stack was used to aerate the smoke, rather from the sides. At 酩悦炭烧火锅 Ming Yue Hot Pot, we had the traditional style of hot pot with these great bowls.
Though I am not a fan of hot pot, I was really impressed with these large cauldrons. The handiwork on the exterior and interior of the bowls were impressive. You could see the faint colors and intricate details of the art. But for modern times, these traditional hot pots are quite inefficient. You can’t really get much soup to drink with. The narrow sides don’t allow big spoons to scoop out broth. Perhaps the Mongolians, who would use their helmets as hot pots, decided to forgo soup for a smokeless dining experience.
酩悦炭烧火锅 doesn’t offer all you can eat, which I prefer. But it does present a very nice dining area, even if we are on the 5th floor of this monstrous mall. The really interesting thing I like, and probably the only thing, is the large self serve dipping sauce counter. This DIY counter offers countless sauces, of different varieties and levels of savory and spiciness. There’s garlic, ginger, and peppers, as well as other unidentifiable ones. Another cool feature was all the shelled peanuts available that you could grab. I love peanuts, but they are so bad for me.
I let Mr. G order, since he choose the place. I guess hot pot is a decent choice if you are eating with larges groups of people and may not know what everyone’s preference.
Soon, a little rolling tray was set up beside me with the assortment of raw meats, mushrooms, and vegetables. Lamb and beef were the plates I was look forward to most. Then there was the ‘shrooms and tofu that were dropped in first to soak up the broth.
The thing about hot pot is. . .the differences between restaurants lies with the broth and quality of meat. You can customize the taste to your preference with the dipping sauce – which almost always overpowers the broth flavors on the meats. But when you are just have the broth after cooking for a bit, you get this rich flavorful consume. Which I think is the best part of the meal. But I know this soup is not necessarily good for those with gout.
Anyways…酩悦炭烧火锅 is a great place, if you don’t mind standing in line. Will I return – maybe.
What to Order: The Lamb. But if you don’t like Lamb, beef is quite good What not to Order:
Rating 2 Pigs Price Range 2 $/¥/NT
Links Dianping meishi Dining Secretary