You know, it's kind of interesting that one can go to the same place twice, eat (more or less) the exact same food twice, and yet create memories that look starkly different from each other.
I don't know how it happened; might have been that the lighting overhead my table wasn't so bright, might have been that I wasn't paying enough attention to my food, might even have been the settings on Chonkycam weren't right.
There're so many reasons.
But yes. this was the best picture I could get from the first time I ate there (very likely in December).
And these are the rest.
You see the difference?
You see how startling the difference is between color, clarity and appetite?
Yet- and this I can assure you- the food I had both times was more or less the same.
I am the type of diner who sticks to her favorites and hardly deviates to anything else.
I am also the type of diner who can order lots and lots of her favorites so much so that I can ignore everything else and they can literally don't exist.
One of the things we always order whenever we're here is the beef.
I love it, I tell you.
I love the thinness of the slice.
I love the redness of the meat.
And I love just how beautifully arranged in the tray every single slice is.
There's never been a time where the meat here isn't chilled cold, by the way. Perhaps that might not seem like a big deal to some of you- argument is that you're going to eat it soon- but it does, to me.
I like my meats chilled.
I like my meats neatly arranged.
They make me feel like they're firmer, fresher.
But beyond the beef there're also the vegetables.
Shabu Sai has some interesting vegetables here at their counter. It isn't a huge variety as some other places might have, but more than enough there is. It depends very much on what you're a fan of, but there's something for everyone.
I've seen people go for nothing else but mushrooms, carrots, and radishes.
I've also seen people go for a mountain of leeks and mushrooms.
Of course, there're also the hotpot foods ranging from the cuttlefish balls to the fish balls to the lobster balls to white tofu to cheese tofu to other fun stuff.
Me, my tendencies lean- in running order- to the lettuce, the cabbage, the mushrooms and on occasion, the spinach.
Always.
There's never been a time during hotpot that I have not helped myself to lettuce, or cabbage.
There's also never been a time where I have not wondered if I should fill up my plate and just eat more vegetables, less meat.
Why, you ask me.
Perhaps I really do appreciate the warmth that spreads across the roof of my mouth when the soup bursts out from the leaves.
That is what makes hotpot extra special to me.
So this afternoon I helped myself to what must have been three, four plates of lettuce, cabbage, and then, because the serving plate didn't have enough of the lettuce I liked, I decided on spinach- because who won't benefit from more veggie protein?
After that I got myself a couple slices of tomatoes- charmed by the red juicy slices I was- and into the pot they went.
Hence it was that my concocted bowls all looked like these.
Meat and vegetables, meat and vegetables, meat and vegetables plus one cheese tofu.
To be honest, I'm getting hungry looking at them now.
Let's just say that there's something comforting, and heartwarming seeing all these bowls holding my favorite foods all snug next to each other.
It doesn't look very, very aesthetic.
Neither does it look very garnished.
But seeing them right now makes me think of the juice that bursts out from the soft, warm vegetable, and how the meat- tender and tasty clean as it is- provides that satisfying comfort to the stomach, and the palate.
I like how the vegetables help keep the meats warm.
And I like how the textures of the meats add contrast to the soft, mushy vegetable.
Perhaps that's why hotpots have, in recent times, become more and more reassuring to me.
The warmth however doesn't stop at the meats and the cheese tofu and the leeks and the lettuce.
The fun also doesn't stop at the soft serve ice cream.
Which, by the way, this afternoon, I did take, but I don't have a picture.
On the contrary, however, I have this.
A bowl of udon that I let cook in the pot whilst I munched through a full bowl of vegetables and meat.
I didn't take a lot.
Only about half a bowl.
But it was enough, especially since I got to have it the way I liked- kosong, with just a heap of fried onions, a small spoon of sesame peanut sauce, and a few dashes of fragrant sesame oil.