Ganso-Shabuway: Japanese Style Hot-Pot

My kids love to eat shabu-shabu style; they find the DIY process so amusing.  Not too much for me, because once the novelty of cooking wears off, after the first 20 minutes, I am stuck with cooking the rest of the items on the platter.   Last Sunday when we were at Rockwell, we tried Ganso Shabuway.  While we've tried other chinese-style shabu-shabu restaurants in the past, this is our first time to have it Japanese style.

I learned that the main difference between the Chinese-style and the Japanese style shabu-shabu is simply the soup base.  Ganso Shabuway offers traditional sea-weed, original miso, and spicy miso.  We shared two pots between the five of us so we were able to try all three soup base.  The boys got the spicy miso and sea-weed broth. While us girls got the plain miso broth.

When we eat at any shabu-shabu restaurant, we always order a set menu; we find it to be the most economical way to order shabu-shabu.  We ordered the menu set D for four (P2,045.00), which came with 2 plates of Angus beef slices, 3 vegetable plates, 4 cups of rice, and 2 hot pots of our broth of choice.  We also ordered two bowls of udon, and an extra order of the deluxe plate of vegetable and mushrooms. 

The restaurant only serves Angus and Kobe beef... to ensure the beef remains tender, the slices should be cooked by dipping it in the boiling broth for 10 seconds or so only. 

Then we dip everything in either one of these 2 dipping bowls.  Similar to the chinese-style hot-pot, they also offer two kinds: ponzu sauce and sesame sauce.  There are other condiments like green onions, carrot paste, and garlic paste.  I prefer adding green onions to the ponzu sauce.  I did not really like the sesame sauce, but C said it went really well with garlic and the spicy miso soup base.

We all agreed that aside from the extra-tender slices of beef, the balls were something to come back for.  The kids just love that the balls came with filling, an extra burst of flavor with every bite.  And unlike other shabu-shabus, this one did not make us leave the restaurant smelling like food.  Not a hint of garlic on my dress that day, so I indulged the kids with some desserts from a nearby cafe.

We stopped at the Sugarhouse for some sweet fix...

New York cheesecake while reading her book of the moment, Divergent

Marjolaine, while playing her fave game on the ipad... something she can't do once the weekend is over.

Can't wait for another weekend.

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