Rolling Boil (Anaheim) 8.11.14

When I was a child, most New Year's Days, we would go over to my aunt's house for Chinese hot pot.  At the time, I hated it.  I mean, it was mean and vegetables boiled in water.  I didn't like the Chinese BBQ sauce which was my only "dipping sauce" option and I was terrible with chop sticks which meant that most of the meat was both tasteless and overcooked.

So, I've never understood hot pot and shabu shabu as an experience.  After all, it seemed reminiscent of those sad New Year's Days of yesteryear.  Granted, I'm much better with chopsticks and I've heard there are better sauces, but, I was still dubious.

Luckily, my friend is a huge shabu shabu fan and wanted me to give the whole shabu/ hot pot concept a try.  And, she wanted to see the Packing House, so she came over and we went to Rolling Boil.

Rolling Boil is a Chinese Hot Pot restaurant that prides itself on its house made broths.  There are two choices--the Szechuan Spicy broth and the Vegetarian broth or you can go half and half.  You could also just go for plain water (which they serve with soy sauce & chili oil), but the restaurant prides itself on their broths and let me tell you, boiled meat in water is not yummy, so I'd recommend the broth.

Half & half broth (see how red it is! That's the Szechuan talking), Chinese BBQ (Sa cha) & Sesame sauces

We ended up getting half and half broth, which honestly was too spicy for me, but that's my own fault.  I should know better than to get anything with the word Szechuan in it.  If you're not sure, you can probably ask for a small sample of each broth before deciding (the server gave the party next to us a small sample of the vegetarian broth).  For those of you not familiar with hot pot, the pot of soup is placed on a burner in front of you and you cook various meats, seafoods and veggies in the soup, then take out the protein/veggies, dip it in a sauce of your choosing (they had a house made Chinese BBQ--much better than that of my childhood--savory with a bit of hoisin, dried onion, sesame oil flavor, a sesame sauce--very much like a sesame flavored version of a "peanut sauce", and a citrus sauce--which is a bit like a soy based ponzu with much more vinegar) and eat it with rice.  After you're done with your meat and rice (brown or white, unlimited refills), ask for a soup bowl, and put the remainder of your veggies, plus the udon noodles they're served with in the soup broth for a finishing soup.

Veggie/tofu plate w/ udon noodles (hidden under cabbage) to cook in broth

Each order comes with a veggie plate, rice (brown or white) and your choice of 2 sauces as well as your broth.  We ordered the salmon (other seafood selections included gulf shrimp & scallops) and NY steak (other selections included rib-eye steak, kobe, pork and chicken).  Between us, we also got all 3 sauces. (Shockingly, I think I liked their take on the Chinese BBQ sauce the best!) 

Steak & Salmon

While I probably wouldn't end up getting the Szechuan broth again, I really enjoyed the experience and think I am cured of my hot pot phobia.  Thanks to my friend, Linda, for showing me the ropes in this first step of hot pot rehabilitation.