Hyakunin Issyu

> Location : Shop T02, Lv. 3, Hang Lung Centre,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Japanese Shabu Shabu
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : http://www.hyakunin-issyu.com.hk

After watching dragon tiger gate (review of the movie below) at causeway bay a few days ago, my brother, sis in law, niece and i went to a hot pot restaurant called, hyakunin issyu. base on a dark environment with some small spotlights and unique decorations, hyakunin issyu gave me an impression of the melting pot in the states. why did i say that? well, first of all, this restaurant is a shabu shabu place which is literally for people who still don't know, boiling water with a bunch of uncook food (vege, meat, etc) and sauces and dipping it and cooking the food on the dining table. very much like chinese hot pot if that helps your memory. but what got me to remind me of the melting pot is because you have the choice to choose different soup base kinda like choosing your different meat cookin' base / cheese and such. more on this later.

the menu and ordering is primarily base on set ordering. a set (depending on how many people), basically consist of different amount of small dishes (green beans in peanut sauce and sardine is what we had), sushi (tuna, salmon, white fish, squid), meat (pork, chicken, beef), odon, tampura (various vegetables and shrimp) and a soup base of your choice. there are various soup bases consisting of tomato, soy milk, pumpkin, regular and maybe one other i forgot to take notice of (Sorry!). please take note that, these soup base don't just consist of what i just mentioned, but it's only the primary ingredient. since my brother has been there and tried the soy milk base, we went with that since he said it's really good. before we shabu shabu with the soy milk base, we went with regular boiling water first using the sauces (sesame and a ponsu like sauce). using boiling water, we first ate our beef and vegetable first. reaction? good beef. fresh but nothing particularly out of the ordinary yet. afterwards, we replaced it with the soy milk base and did something base on our personal perference. first we let the soup base boil. afterwards we each each pour some into our bowls. the udon is still untouch and now we finally dump them into soup base. remember, the udon is pretty much cooked already. leave it in there for like 30 seconds to 1 min max. take it out, put it into your bowl of soy milk soup (it's not just soy milk, it's a mixture of that and other things. so it's a taste of sweetness a bit salty flavor), let it soak just a little bit and enjoy! no need for any sauces. the extremely unique and strong flavor of the soup base does the job as a sauce and u can drink it like soup because it is a "soup base" after all. with about 1/4 or so soup base left in the pot, we used it to cook whats left of the beef, using the soup base as sauce again. wow, just excellent! one wouldn't think soy milk would even make sense. but remember, it isn't the only thing in there but it is the primary part of the soup base.

i really have nothing special to talk about with the small dishes. one of the small dishes contained scallops, sardine and some green beans with peanut sauce. the scallops were dry and not fresh. the sardine is alright and the green beans were neat but nothing special. well, it is just a small starter dish so not a major problem. next? some sushi. we had two rounds. the first round, salmon, tuna, both melted in my mouth. according to my fish eating experience and some knowledge coming from some sushi chefs, when sashimi melts in your mouth, most likely it is NOT fresh. the only exception is fatty tuna a.k.a. toro. since i pointed that out, yes, the fish weren't fresh. the next round of sushi was better. some salmon and tuna again with white fish and squid. my guess it came from another fish, the salmon this time was nice and chewy which concludes its freshness. the tuna melted and looking at the rice below it, some of the color came off into the rice which REALLY told me it's not fresh. haha. it's not common but it does happen when it gets sit around for awhile or even worst, sometimes people actually put food coloring into it to make unfresh fish look fresher. anyways, the white fish was perfectly fine and the squid also. after this, we got a grilled horse mackerel. horse mackerel is usually one of the more expensive type of mackerel. if the fish name dont ring a bell, mackerel in japanese is called 'saba.' another type is spanish mackerel. it tasted okay. i think it was a bit overcooked. so it was a bit stiff. so i had to give my thumbs down for the last two dishes.

so in conclusion, the main purpose for you to visit hyakunin issyu is to eat the shabu shabu. but sometimes, the chef that day could have its off day so the things i thought were bad could be good other days. it's not good to be inconsistent but that's just a notion to ponder on. the soy milk soup base was just unexpectedly excellent and something you should definitely try when going there. i'll report to u'll the other types when i get a chance. anyways, that's it! thanks for reading!

< 3 out of 5 >