A Friend and I decided that we would do lots of beef for the Lunar New Year hotpot this year.
No less because we'd discovered this new hotpot place somewhere along Tanjong Katong Road, but more so because we wanted to go ballistic and have the celebration of chicken, pork, beef and fish for the occasion. (Hey, we're no more in the olden days where meat was scarce and we needed to ration it out, are we?)
What we really ate at the hotpot place, however, turned out to be four portions of beef, one portion of pork, no fish, no chicken and no vegetables at all.
It was a deliberate choice- a plunge we took after having happened to look across at the table next to us- and seeing how beautifully arranged their slices of raw beef were. The decision was to either take less beef and have the vegetables, or to have all beef, no fish, no chicken and no veggies.
Us being us we conquered took the latter- and conquered four portions for our meal.
Slice by slice by slice that's how we worked through the four plates.
And it was good. Even the combination sauce of sesame sauce and sesame oil topped with coriander and Chinese parsley blended well with the fragrance and homely taste of the meat, and took none of it away.
And well we did, for served at our table were four rectangular plates of thinly sliced raw beef, each rolled up and arranged prettily. The meat was fresh, really fresh, and that- I think- made all the difference. Elsewhere with other hotpot meals we might have chucked all the meat into the pot and let it boil on its own, but here, no, couldn't be done, simply because the slice was too thin, and the freshness made it a necessity to go elegant shabu-shabu style. It became necessary for us to pick up each slice with our chopsticks, dip it into the soup, stir it around a bit, watch it cook, and then and only then put it on our dish and eat it.
Same it was with the perfectly shaped handmade pork balls that we balanced on our ladles and dipped into the soup. That same homely taste, that tenderness of the meat in the balls, all of it came together well for our meat-dominated meal- never mind that the raw balls came presented to us on a serving dish that had a wide-eyed (porcelain) doll dressed in period costume. (!)
Perhaps what I dearly loved wasn't just the food, or even the collagen-rich soup.
What I loved was how the deliciousness of the food, and the way the meal was done slowed down the pace of our meal. There was no rush. There was no hurrying to and fro. The restaurant was quietly occupied, it was a fun experience, and our entire eating experience became remarkably tranquil.
Far from the noisy, festive vibes that we might have had in other places, this one, was what we needed, and yes, what I cherished, enjoyed, and loved.