Dining Out: Chinese New Year Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Starting the Year of the Snake with a family dinner at Xiang Zi, where we miraculously got a reservation for tonight:

Lettuce stem salad

Spicy cucumber salad

Premium item: Abalone

Sliced pork belly and tender beef

Sliced New Zealand lamb

Sliced Angus beef

King oyster and enoki mushrooms

Daikon, winter melon, and lotus root

Pork blood jelly, Chinese sausage, pork intestines, and fish and beef balls

Pork bone broth

Because is there anything more appropriate than hot pot to celebrate Chinese New Year?

Wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy new year!

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Christmas Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Every year, my mom and I go out for Christmas dinner, usually a set menu type of deal. But I wanted something a little more comforting this year, and more warming because I've had a runny nose and nasal congestion since Sunday. And what could be more warming than hot pot?

Ready-to-serve dishes: Cucumber salad, lettuce stem salad, and marinated duck tongues

Premium item: Abalone

Napa cabbage, lettuce stems, king oyster mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms

Beef tripe, beef tendon, fish and beef balls, winter melon, daikon, and lotus root

Premium item: Tender beef

Angus beef, beef brisket, beef sirloin, New Zealand lamb, pork belly, and basa fillet

Cooking in mushroom and pork bone broth

Dessert: Fresh-cut papaya, oriental melon, honeydew, and watermelon

On top of their regular menu, they also had a Christmas-exclusive buffet-style spread around the main centre booth, which included ready-to-eat foods like marinated quail eggs, braised tofu, and stewed beef tendon; raw items already separated into dishes that you could pick up instead of ordering from the tablet; a huge variety of all-you-can-drink canned pop; as well as an assortment of cakes, Melona bars, and fruits for dessert. This was awesome. Kinda wish they had this all year round, but I know it's a lot to maintain and it makes the restaurant way more hectic than it needs to be since so many more people are getting up to roam. Still, the food was excellent, the service was excellent, and therefore, Christmas was excellent. 

Hope everyone had a similarly delicious and merry Christmas!

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Japanese Hot Pot at Daimaru Shabu Shabu

Started this weekend off with some Japanese-style hot pot at the newly opened Daimaru Shabu Shabu. We decided on the regular "All-Day Premium AYCE Menu" and basically ordered everything. Started with the snack options — Hokkaido potato chips, takoyaki (which was surprisingly good — as close to authentic as it can get from frozen), deep-fried rice cakes, steak katsu, Nagoya-style chicken wings, and watermelon slices (random, but quite an excellent palate cleanser) — and then ordered all the meat, beef balls, beef tendon, dumplings, scallops, quail eggs, deep-fried bean curd skin, crispy bean curd rolls, nappa cabbage, winter melon, radish, corn, enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, bamboo shoots...

Hokkaido potato chips
Takoyaki
Two-flavour soup base: Tom yum and sukiyaki
Ribeye
Premium beef chuck, selected sirloin, and pork belly
Ribeye and beef brisket
Quail eggs, deep-fried bean curd skin, crispy bean curd rolls, crab meat, mushrooms, and assorted vegetables
Fresh beef balls, dumplings, beef tendon, scallops, and watermelon

Compared to a typical Chinese hot pot place, Daimaru actually doesn't have as many food options, but their broth and dipping sauce flavours are quite different, which is where the Japanese style comes in. We decided to do a two-flavour soup base — one classic sukiyaki and the other with the new tom yum soup. The tom yum was decent, but the sukiyaki was excellent. It is a classic and distinctly Japanese flavour (soy sauce, sugar, and mirin), and it's so flavourful that I didn't find the need for any kind of dipping sauce. Sukiyaki is the one to get if you actually want Japanese-style hot pot. Desserts are also excellent here; they only offer three options, but the ice cream (available in vanilla and chocolate) comes in sealed (!) individual cups so there's no freezer burn on pre-scooped bowls like at most AYCE places, the Hokkaido milk pudding is actually milky with delicious bits of mango and mandarin oranges on top, and the crème brûlée is incredibly rich and luxurious with torched sugar on top that is actually crispy (sorry, but crème brûlée at Asian AYCE restaurants is usually really shitty, usually too gelatinous or liquidy, so this was shockingly good).

Not sure if it's because they just opened (quite literally two weeks ago), but Daimaru's new location is exceptionally clean with incredible service — unfailingly polite, efficient, and helpful. Including drinks (Coke Zero for me, peach soda for Minji, and lychee mint soda for Daniel) and after tax and tip, it was about $58 per person, which is on the steeper side but about average for a more upscale hot pot restaurant. Perhaps a bit too pricey to eat here regularly, but it's a great option for a treat meal or special occasion. In fact, I might just come back for Mid-Autumn Festival...

Daimaru Shabu Shabu

8333 Kennedy Rd., Unit 1073

Markham, ON L3R 4P8

(365) 536-0506

Cooking at Home: Victoria Day Weekend Hot Pot

Seven of us went over to Minji and Daniel's house for edibles, hot pot, and playing Betrayal until 3:00AM.

Spicy broth and tomato broth for hot pot
Dumplings, fish balls, seafood balls, rice cakes, udon noodles, king oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, winter melon, Chinese yam, kohlrabi, gluten puffs, tofu puffs, bean curd puffs, watercress, and dandelion greens
Dumplings, fish balls, seafood balls, rice cakes, udon noodles, beef balls, and lamb slices
Spicy broth and mushroom broth for hot pot

And we got enough food to bring home for the next three meals because we bought enough groceries for a small army.

An excellent start to the long weekend!

Dining Out: New Year's Feast at Xiang Li Hot Pot

Food-wise, 2024 has started off with a bang as my mom and I went for AYCE hot pot at Xiang Zi:

Sliced beef, pork belly, and lamb
Assorted pork and beef intestines, enoki mushrooms, and lotus root
Assorted beef intestines, cucumber salad, lettuce stem salad, scallops, and tender beef
Mushroom and pork bone broth and hog maw and chicken broth (center)
Daikon, luncheon meat, stuffed bean curd pouches, fish balls, bean curd sheets, fried tofu cubes, wontons, beef balls, winter melon, and quail eggs
Sliced beef x 2
HOT POT!
Watermelon and cantaloupe for dessert
Who knew my mom would become one of my go-to food buddies? (Like mother, like daughter...?)

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Mid-Autumn Festival Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Nothing quite like celebrating today by eating my weight's worth of hot pot at Xiang Zi:

Pot of 3 broths: Mushroom and pork bone, hog maw and chicken, and tomato
King oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, winter melon, and lotus root
Beef slices
Watercress, romaine, shrimp, and mussels
Abalone, tender beef, and lamb slices
Lamb skewers
Fresh fruit platter

This was literally only a third of what we ordered because I eventually decided that eating was more important than taking photos. What you don't see here: Cucumber salad, stem lettuce salad, marinated duck tongue, fried tofu, fried gluten balls, fried fish paste, pork intestines, honeycomb tripe, pork belly slices, quail eggs, luncheon meat, squid, scallops, long li fish... My food baby is unreal right now. (Definitely 3rd trimester, good thing I wore my ultra-stretch jeggings.) It was my mom's first time here, and she was so impressed with everything — the variety, the cleanliness, the service, the decor — that she's already planning to have our Winter Solstice dinner here. But the cherry on top? When we got the bill, we found out they're offering a 20% discount this week! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, indeed.

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Hot Pot at Kim Tao Hot Pot 金稻

Attempting to drown my sorrows from not being able to get tickets for the Agust D Tour (I got waitlisted for the ARMY Member presale code, so I knew it was game over) by eating everything at all-you-can-eat hot pot with Carmen:

Dipping sauce ingredients
Wontons, pork and chive dumplings, and gluten puffs
Sliced beef, lamb, and pork
Pork meat balls, beef meat balls, cuttle fish balls, and beef tendon
Fresh tofu, beef tripe, and luncheon meat
Hot pot with tomato broth and satay broth
Fried stuffed tofu and fried buns with condensed milk

The place looks kinda rundown and definitely not as fancy or impressive as most hot pot places these days but they have a surprisingly huge variety of meat, seafood, and veg, plus an entire menu dedicated to deep-fried snacks (which are also included in the price). There's also a selection of broths that are free (almost all hot pot places charge extra for the broth) and they bring your choice of dipping sauce ingredients to the table so you can always make new sauces without having to get up to go to a separate area to get it (am I the only one who hates this?). They also provide all-you-can-drink iced lemon tea or suanmeitang that is included in the price. It's about $10 cheaper than most other hot pot places and 10% gratuity is already included so you don't have to tip extra, either. Oh, and they close at 1:00AM for those midnight hot pot cravings. 

I did not successfully drown all my sorrows, but at least dinner was delicious.

Kim Tao Hot Pot 金稻

10 East Wilmot St., Unit 10-13

Richmond Hill, ON L4G 1G9

(905) 882-8877