Chinatown, Boston, MA: Hot Pot Cuisine

After a few hours and a bit of grief spent in a Starbucks in Portland, ME, I finally find a place to stay right outside Boston, in Revere Beach, which I have never heard of, but it’s hard for me to say no to a beach. I arrive around 8pm, park my car on the street, and head into the city to find something to eat. I decide to head into Chinatown since I only recently got to see Chinatown in Montreal – and loved it, plus it is easily identifiable on the Train map, clearly marked “Chinatown”.

I’m gonna go ahead and say, I would not recommend going to Chinatown after dark as a single female traveler unless you have a specific destination in mind. This is one place where you absolutely do not want to look like a lost, helpless tourist wandering aimlessly. It didn’t take long for me to figure that out, so I quickly popped into the closest, cleanest looking restaurant I could find. The place was called Shabu-zen.

As I sat down at the sushi-bar style table (where the sushi chef prepares the food in the middle of a large rectangle along which sit all the guests), I observed what was in front of me: a bowl, a plate, a ladle, and a strainer. The waiter brought a small tray of sauces and spices and I noticed for the first time the hole in the table.

I looked at my waiter and said, “So this is my first time here. Can you explain to me how everything-” I gestured to the utensils, “works?” This inquiry clearly thrilled my waiter – who only seemed to speak enough English to get by – and he grabbed my menu and told me (pointed at) what to order. Then he ran off and grabbed another server – a girl whose English was a little better than his – and she explained how everything works.

For those of you who have never had hot pot cuisine, it is a lot like fondue. You choose a broth and a sauce and a meat and vegetables, and all of it is served to you raw with a bowl of steamed rice on the side. Then, you mix all of the spices into your sauce, toss the veggies into the stew – they take a few minutes to cook – and grab a piece of meat with your chopsticks. The meat is very thinly sliced – the way it’s served in most generic Asian dishes – so it only takes about 10-15 seconds to cook.

After the meat is cooked, you dip it in the sauce and eat it with whatever combination of vegetables and rice you desire. It is an awful lot of food, so I’d suggest you bring a friend or two to enjoy it with you, but I definitely did a number on it by myself because it was so good!

Afterwards, I finished up my meal with some delicious Japanese green tea ice cream – the kind that looks like a little pellet and has a doughy exterior. This was one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time and a great start to my stay in Boston!