I’m talking about having to cook your dinner in your own table with heaps of ingredients waiting to be cooked!
Tonight I ate at a Shabu-shabu restaurant with my family and I have never felt so pressured to cook my own food and eat it too!
Shabu-shabu is a Japanese way of cooking where you toss slices of beef or pork, eggs, chicken, lobster, shrimp, crab, noodles, vegetables, tomatoes, corn, fish balls, yams, spices and almost everything edible into a pot of boiling broth built into a marble table. If there is one food adventure you must experience, I would say this is it.It is such a healthy way of eating (no preservatives and oil!) and only the natural flavors of the food makes it a gastronomical feast in itself. I think that’s the reason I plunged into this food experience. But if I had a choice and knew it would be a lot of work, I would have gone to a pizza joint instead.
I am not a culinary expert. My genius in the kitchen is just about cooking eggs and cup noodles. I could bake a mean cake but that’s not exactly cooking isn’t it? So when I was faced with the task of cooking my own meal, it felt a bit daunting. I had to ask my 17- year old niece how it’s done.
After I tossed almost all of the ingredients that could fit into the pot, I told myself: It’s not so hard. My confidence waned though as my niece checked my pot and kept saying, “Tita, your vegetables are getting burned.” or “Tita, your crab is overcooked”. How could I know? I was busy eating the first 100 ingredients I scooped out of the boiling broth.
From then on, I was frantically multi-tasking: Checking on my ingredients, eating my soup, slurping on the cooked noodles, stirring, eating my crab, sipping my watermelon shake, and so on. By the time I was done with the fish ball, I was tired. And I haven’t even scooped up the squid I tossed in first! I never imagined this whole shabu-shabu experience was this stressful!
After what felt like almost 2 hours, I had to give some of my noodles to my niece, my crab to my mom and the rest of the overcooked and soggy ingredients to my dad. When I finally decided to end the adventure and did one last scoop into the pot,I finally found my 2 pieces of squid!
The experience ended with an equally hefty dessert: a big bowl of fresh fruits in crushed ice and sweet milk. It was a fitting end to this food adventure.
I must admit I was stressed through it all. It was a good kind of stress though. Good enough that I can’t wait to bring my friends to a shabu-shabu adventure as well!
