HuHot

Went to HuHot on Sunday. I've never been to a Mongolian Barbecue before (having heard various reports about ghastly gastrointestinal problems after visiting such places - although I often think that's just from overeating), but Hubby had been there for lunch and said it was good. Nice, colourful, clean interior. You can choose between a single bowl for (I think) $7.50 and the all-you-can-eat for $8.99 for lunch. Since I wanted to try out the place and was kinda hungry, it was a no-brainer what I was going to choose...

So here's how the place works: If you want, you can choose some of the usual appetizers like won-tons off the menu, otherwise you just grab a bowl and start piling up foodstuffs at the various bars.

First the meat bar: On Sunday, the choice was chicken, pork, beef, scallops, shrimp, weird sausage slices and haddock (?). Then there's a choice of three noodles - chinese egg noodles *my favourite*, white pad thai noodles and some buckwheat sobe noodles. Next you get to the veggie station where it starts getting dangerous balancing the pile of stuff in your bowl. My favourite would be the water chestnuts and pea pods here. Then on to the sauces and oils. Oooh, the choices! Each is labeled very clearly and nicely arranged from mild to spicy. On my three *blush* trips to the buffet, I tried the Hoisin sauce *my all-time favourite*, then a rather bland ginger-scallion sauce and then the Hoisin again, with some sesame oil. Perfect!

Anyway, then you hand your bowl to a grim *possibly meant to be Mongolian?* looking chef who proceeds to emptying your stuff over a huge hot stone where it gets fried for a couple of minutes, and then hands it back to you on a plate. Now you can go back to your table where a bowl of hot white rice is awaiting you, and start enjoying.

Verdict? I liked it. Not enough to go back there every week, but I was very happy with the stuff on my plate(s) *to my defense, I have to say that I only had very SMALL portions in my bowl each time!*. The scallops smelled a bit *fishy* but were edible, I preferred the chicken though. Oh yes, they had tofu as well, which didn't look too bad, next time I'll try that.