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2009-10-14
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When social animals need to live up to their "nature", they meet up and be "sociable". It used to be a hassle calling up each and everyone for a gathering, but now you have facebook, twitter, and everything else that updates you by the millisecond who wants what, when and where. There are small gatherings and then there are the big ones. I, as someone who writes here on Openrice occasionally, must admit that I've yet to attend the latter. Small ones, though, I have. On this day, in the middle of
The location is, to be exact, "hard to get to" for someone who's been too comfortable with point to point transportation. Megabox is not easily accessible, and even if you're inside it feels like the directions are screaming out at you in different directions, when you finally reached into the elevator that shoots you up to the floor of your choice, you'll realize, that it doesn't matter anymore. TACK HSIN at the Megabox is a clean square room, brightly lit even on a sunny day, with a view of the open skating rink below and the harbour on the outside. Hot Pot for 15 means we're going to get 2 to 3 pots of different soup bases, and by all you can eat, it means that we're all going to have a good time passing food across the table.
Focusing on one pot, the ordering began, as checks were swiftly marked in each tiny boxes on the ordering list -- beef, meatballs, cuttlefish, slices of scallops, and all that. For the soup base we ordered a double-soup base (half of Coriander broth and the other, a Szechuan chili hot soup base). The shimmering pot of jade green and chunky crimson broth were a contrast on each other, with star anise, chilies and their seeds easily fished out from the latter. At last the first of bubbles erupted from the chili broth, and the onslaught of "cooking process" began -- we each added in meats and vegetables by the platefuls, clearing out plates' contents into the simmering broth before the waiters could settle more of our orders onto our table. After each addition, we all sat down, reaching our arms out, chopsticks in hand, blending in raw slices of meat and meatballs, and slices of squid together. For a minute or two nobody moved, eyes still on the pot with the lid on. Our eyes might have been fixated at the pot, conversations started to flow with hot tea, as we were just glad that we had finally been able to meet up and have a meal together, on the same table. And soon enough before long the strangers in the able have blended in and become friends with each other faster than it took to cook thin shavings of beef!
I have limited my choice of pictures to beef, which was primarily the most ordered ingredient of the night. The "dumplings" were served frozen. There were two kinds -- one with barbecued pork and the other, sweet custard. The texture was supposedly glutinous and gooey on the outside while the filling was hot and molten. Sadly, it was the chunky barbecued pork dumpling that won our attention. I normally preferred the custard one, but let's face it, when you have a chili broth, it'd taste rather weird because you could taste neither the chili nor the custard...It became "a gooey mess" in the end.
The beer was flowing, and so were the conversations. We laughed and chuckled our way through another tray of beef, and to the staff's surprise even after two hours the 15 people who sat in the centre of the room were still having healthy appetites,crossing each others' chopsticks and downing plates after plates of meats. (Let's not forget, we're talking about 15 adults). The meal is rounding up with a full belly, and frankly to have this kind of hot pot TACK HSIN seems a reasonable choice and the quality maintains at a high standard across town (in different branches).
Seating here may be a little tight, and that, has stirred up quite big trouble that night, causing disruption between our table and the adjacent table. There were exchanges of some not so nice language and nearly actions involved -- that, is not the willingness to "blend in" can do...When people say the prolonged "boiling" during a hot pot dinner boils one's temper as well, I now realized what they mean. It's no joke and certainly no conflict resolution on my part, perhaps we all need to loosen up and learn to blend in with each other -- chill out, down a glass of ice cold beer, and be cool.
張貼
