The Singapore Forum

Just found a brand new restaurant open in Tampines Mall.

It is one of the Japanese Shabusi ones, where you sit at a table with boiling soup and insert whatever you want from the little plates of beef/pork/prawns/vegies going around.

$22 for all you can eat.

Healthy and filling!

Was really fab. We got treated there yesterday at lunch but liked it so much we are going back again tonight

Highly recommended. This time will take card and put proper address.

Roll on 6.30pm.

Will give it a go

What makes it healthy? Serious question, trying to understand Japanese food.

My recollection is that it's basically just food cooked in stock - hence no fats, other than maybe what is on the meat itself.

Everything gets cooked in one big pot - not so good for vegetarians unless a separate cooking pot is provided. Tried it once, not been back.

how is this different from your average 'Steamboat'?

In methodology, very little. Japanese 'Nabe' is another version of this. It's lower calorie because there are no carbs.

Chinese put lots of nasty stuff in theirs, intestines and tripe and such. Also, their stock can be very oily.

Japanese ingredients are more palatable to me and their stock is more water-based instead of oil.

I have an issue with having to cook my own food at a restaurant....

True, although at least you get to sit at your table and have the food brought to you.

Marche is the one that pisses me off. I get to go to a restaurant, get a table, then spend 30 minutes wandering around trying to find something I want and waiting for it to be cooked.

Well went again Friday night. Lean meat - chicken and beef and prawns as it is Halal. Lots of it. Lots of veges. Also has sushi and tofu foods, yum.

The food goes past you on this dear little converyor belt and you just reach out and grab a plate.

For Daff there are two metal deep pots set in each table so one could be for veges and one for meat eaters. Or you can eat at the bar thingy. You can choose tom yum soup or chicken broth as your base. It boils away and cooks the food and at the end when you are just about to pop you then eat all the soup which by then is really amazing because you have cooked so much in it. Food was really good. Lots of japanese mushrooms (the brown and tripey ones) and loads of veges. We ate until I could barely walk, was fab. Really recommended.

Its on the food floor of Hougang Mall, 2nd floor. $19 for weekdays for adult and $22 weekends.

But if you want to eat healthily this type of restaurant is really good and it is lots of fun making your own combo.

I have to say honestly I haven't enjoyed a restaurant for food more (not just booze etc as per usual) in years, since I ate veal in a restaurant in the Loire Valley. We came away feeling great.

Aliya wrote:I have to say honestly I haven't enjoyed a restaurant for food more (not just booze etc as per usual) in years, since I ate veal in a restaurant in the Loire Valley. We came away feeling great.

Bet the poor baby calf didn't feel so great....

T2K wrote:Marche is the one that pisses me off. I get to go to a restaurant, get a table, then spend 30 minutes wandering around trying to find something I want and waiting for it to be cooked.

Don't even get me started about Marche. I was dragged there once by American friends of friends here on vacation - their last night in Asia they saw the Marche sign and went berzerk for it! Dorks.

I know Daff, I thought it was some nice tender pork, was horrified to find it was veal, as a practice I dont eat it...

Slightly playing devil's advocate here, but why is there a moral difference between eating a baby animal and a full-grown one?

Buy a whole chicken in the supermarket and it is - in the UK at least - around 42 days old. I'd be surprised if it's different in Asia. A baby by any standards.

Also, veal is a complex one. We all consume loads of dairy products, which results in an awful lot of dairy calves, half of which are male and make no economic sense to rear to adult.

spring lamb is pretty young when snarfed too

I really like the Japanese place at Vivo -- it has 2 sides, one with the boiling soup (I think) and one where you grill your own at your table. I've only been to the grilling side & I LOVE it -- nice beef tenderloin, marinated chicken, fresh veg -- yummy!

slinky wrote:and one where you grill your own at your table.

Have to say I'm with Baloo on this one. Why go out to a restaurant and then have to cook yourself - it's madness. You may as well find a nice bit of tenderloin in Cold Storage and go home and do it yourself in the comfort of your home, with the music you like, free drinks from the fridge

Free? Erm, you are meant to PAY for the booze you select in supermarkets you know!

So let me get this straight - you nay-sayers prefer your fondue to come pre-cheesed?

The fondue is cooked in the kitchen, it only comes out when it ready to be eaten. You're serving yourself, not cooking yourself.

Also with Baloo.

I don't see the point in going to a restaurant and/or paying to cook my own food.

I don't really like fondue - will never order it if I had my own way. Not even chocolate ones.

You're missing the point. The point is to muck about having fun, making a mess, burning your fingers and then paying for it

Suit yourselves. I like steamboat. One thing I like about it is that most soups are pre-made in the back, the ingredients selected by the chef. Steamboat lets you decide what goes in. That's handy. It's also the experience - it's novel. Why not? It's just a little fun.

I had a gorgeous meal in Vietnam, Nha Trang, I think, along the beach, fresh marinated squid and they brought a charcoal grill to your table. My friend and I were in heaven, it was so nice to cook it just so and eat it fresh from the grill. The marinade was to die for. Just a great meal and a fun experience. I remember many meals on that trip, but this one was especially fun.

It's also the preparation. Cutting up all that meat and all those vegetables, making the stock = PITA. Throwing stuff that's already prepped for you into some liquid and then eating it isn't difficult, I wouldn't call it cooking.

I like the informality of that kind of restaurant. Think it's at its best when it's a group of friends, rather than a couple though.

Lili Von Shtupp wrote:So let me get this straight - you nay-sayers prefer your fondue to come pre-cheesed?

the idea of pre-cheesed fondue is just disturbing on so many levels