vietnamese hot pot

A few days ago I was really craving hot pot. I didn't want to make it myself, so I tried to look for a restaurant that had it.

There used to be a few Chinese restaurant that serve hot pot in town, but I was informed that the hot pot was either "not in season," or "no longer exits on the menu anymore." booooo.

Then I remembered last time I was at Saigon Pho (Vietnamese restaurant) I saw some old ladies having the hot pot... and off I went to check it out.

I had never had the Vietnamese version of the hot pot, and I was pleasantly surprised by it:



EC and I shared the hot pot. The actual "pot" itself looked totally different than the Chinese or Taiwanese ones. It has a deep center filled with broth, and a shallow "wide rim" around the center where the uncooked food was placed on.

We got the beef hot pot (?) and I wished there was a little bit more beef. We did feel very satisfied after the meal, though, because there were a lot of vegetables that came with the pot, along with two different types of almost-cooked noodles that you can add to the broth.

I know hot pot is normally for the colder weather, but for some odd reason I love it even if it's 90 degrees out there these days.