The Hot Pot

Lonnise and I wound up at The Hot Pot in Davie for Dinner tonight.

I had driven past and scouted the place before... it first appears to be just another Vietnamese Pho place that I am noticing all around the town, but they had signs for very non-Vietnamese stuff in their window, like Crawfish. So I was intrigued.

We get there and it's not very crowded (we were the only table at the time), but we were greeted by Katie, who was friendly and pleasant.

The menu had many of the standard Pho-type items, but also some stuff that sounded very creative with their use of sauces, and a whole section on Hot Pots. We didn't do it this time, but Hot Pots are basically -- if I understood Katie correctly -- Vietnamese Fondue. You pick two different flavor Broths, and then buy (a la carte) the various items to add to the Broth, There were Meat, Fish, Seafood, and Chicken items, as well as a selection of different Vegetables and Noodles. We passed a couple as we were leaving, and they had what appeared to be a ton of food in and around their Hot Pot, and the guy estimated that all that food was going to run him around $30 for the two of them. It certainly appeared to be a good deal for $15.

But I digress.

Shockingly, I didn't get the Pho Soup. Hell, I didn't get any Soup. I started with the Summer Rolls.

I get these everywhere, and they are all pretty much the same: Good. I wasn't disappointed here.

Katie did an excellent job talking me into my next dish, the Dynamite Mussels.

These are cooked Mussels topped with a very, very tasty -- and spicy -- sauce. I liked them a lot, and will probably bring Loretta here for them... she's a big Mussel Fan.

In a fit of Health, I also ordered a plate of Steamed Bok Choy.

For some reason, I always either overcook or undercook my Bok Choy, so this was a pleasure. It tasted a little boring, however, but then Katie came to the rescue.

She brought me what she called Vietnamese Barbecue Sauce, bit it was more like a paste. She also brought some chopped up fresh Garlic and some Chili Pepper flakes. I mixed them together, using a little Soy Sauce to get it to work, and that did the trick on the Bok Choy.

The Soups there looked interesting, and I **could** have forced myself to eat one, but I decided to save that for a future trip.

Lonnise had the Shrimp Seafood Boil. Here she is with the food and Katie.

The deal on this dish is that you pick your Seafood from what they have available, then they cook it in one of a few different sauces. Katie recommended the 'Sha Bang' Sauce. Lonnise liked it a lot. I tasted the sauce, and it was very tasty and Garlic-y and a little hot. The check said that it was the 'mild' Sauce, so beware. I might order medium for myslf, if I ever order that dish. Lonnise's dish was $12, and it had what looked like a lot of Shrimp. Katie asked if she wanted the Shrimp with or without their heads. Despite passing up what would have been a wonderful photo opportunity, she went headless.