Hot Pot ...Take Out

[1needf00d]

A couple of friends of mine from my university days are visiting. One of the things we used to do was go to Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles and buy Chinese Hot Pot. The restaurant would sell the soup base and all the ingredients in prepackaged containers. We would then sit around the dining table at home get stupid drunk and eat hot pot.

Is there any place where I can buy that sort of thing in Toronto?

[1needf00d]

Just found out, if you don't mind shabu shabu/sukiyaki instead of hot pot you can buy it from famu supermarket. It's $60 for a serving for 2.

Went to T&T and the lady I asked had no idea what I wanted. We were next to the hot pot freezer section too. I asked her about the broth and she just shook her head and said she didn't know.

[sbug206]

There is no such thing as "fresh" hot pot meat. How do you think they get them sliced that thin? They're all previously frozen. It's just the ones you eat at a restaurant have been thawed out.

[Charles Yu]

They are available in almost all Chinese supermarket now like T&T

[1needf00d]

Thanks. is it any good? are there any restaurants that do it? I would prefer something fresh

[sweetie]

The meat avalable at T&T is frozen and the soup base is concentrate. I suspect the meat offered at most hot pot restaurants is frozen as well though. I prefer buying ingredients at the store and cooking at home myself and I often get ingredients at T&T.

[1needf00d]

Hmmm. I guess I'll go have a look. It's not too far away. Thanks.

[Herne]

I'm going to T&T in a couple of hours. Is the meat labelled for Hot Pot. Also is the base so labelled? I have a real problem trying to find things at T&T so I need as much info as possible. My finance spoke only Chines till about 3 years old but she doesn't read much of it now.

[eco987]

They sell soup bases made by Lee Kum Kee (chicken, fish, satay, spicy Sichuan are some of the varieties available). Your best bet is to look it up and show the staff a picture so they can point you to the right aisle.

The meat will be in the frozen section, they either come sliced and stacked (which is a bit of a pain to defrost) or in rolls (one slice per roll) which can be cooked from frozen. Your options are chicken, beef, lamb and pork.

The butcher counter will also have meatballs and the fish counter (or the fish freezer area) will have fish balls.

Vermicelli will be in the dried noodle section (and needs to be soaked ahead of time) or you can grab some fresh rice noodles near the soy milk section or some frozen udon in the frozen dumpling section.

And don't forget to grab some veg and dipping sauces (chili oil, soy sauce, peanut sauce, sesame oil, etc).

In response to the loriginal post. I get my hotpot meat at famu in J-Town. It is the best meat for hotpot as even the leaner cuts are super juicy and tender. They also sell Sukiyaki sets with tofu, napa cabbage, home-made udon, etc. I've never bought the set before, but if the meal is for one or two people, it is nice to just have a bit of a variety and no left overs.

[1needf00d]

Ooops! Didn't see your post. I did exactly that and went to famu and got their shabu shabu sets. Thanks. It was $60 per set.