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The Weekly Eater Nadine Kam |
Shabu Shabu House
ready for any weatherTHE weather has been very, very bad to home owners across the state, but for newly opened Shabu Shabu House it's been very, very good indeed, as hundreds have crossed the restaurant's threshold in search of warmth and shelter from December's rain and January's wind, plus the miniscule but powerful assortment of germs and viruses that have put many out of commission for weeks.
There is an easy way to avoid much of the annual cold and flu season pestilence, and that is, to keep your hands clean during that season when you're grabbing cookies and candies by the dozen and plopping them into your mouth without a thought as to where that hand's been (hey, keep those thoughts clean as well), i.e. stair railings and door handles sticky with residue of human contact.
But, short of retreating to a plastic bubble there will be times you feel chilly, rundown and in need of a little comfort, and that's where the shabu shabu comes in.
The Japanese-style hot pot involves a little work, but the result is ultimately good for you. Boiling the ingredients adds no fat or calories to your choice of unadorned pork ($9.95), beef ($9.95) or seafood ($15.75). (Prices are about $2 less at lunch time.) Each of these selections comes with an additional platter of vegetables, including won bok, bok choy, carrot slices, noodles and a couple of mushrooms, though vegetarians should note the mushrooms are stuffed with a mixture of pork, chicken and tofu.
The veggie plate will look daunting for those raised on meat, but you'll feel better afterward. Both Chinese cabbages are full of vitamin C, folic acid, beta carotene, potassium and calcium.
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
This pork and beef combination meal, complete with vegetable platter, runs a mere $9.95 during dinner hours at Shabu Shabu House on Kapiolani.
OF COURSE this being Hawaii, the restaurant principals could not count on dreary weather to fill seats beyond what passes for winter. The restaurant's real pitch to the consumer is the health advantages of hot-pot dining. It's a practical, old-fashioned concept that's had to be rediscovered by generations weaned on foods found in grocery-store boxes, far-removed from the earth.
In tune with a newfound health chic that isn't showing any signs of abating as we break in the new year, the restaurant's central setup is not the typical symmetrical rows of rectangle tables, but a flowing bar designed to accommodate couples dining from one pot. There are also tables for four that accommodate groups of friends or small families.
At Shabu Shabu House, the gadgetry underneath the smokeless hot pots is easy to figure out even for the last of the Luddites. There's one button to turn the power off and on, and other directional buttons that allow you to turn the heat up or down. As in regular stovetop cooking, set your water -- with a lone piece of kombu thrown in for flavor -- boiling, then reduce as you see fit. Slower cooking at a lower temperature yields the tenderest results.
That kombu doesn't add much flavor to the pot, but luckily, soy and chili sauces are offered at the table, along with three house sauces: Ginger, ponzu and sesame. Other condiments that help spice up a meal are shichimi pepper, green onions and grated daikon.
Even then, this didn't soak into the beef or pork as much as I prefer, so I added some of the bottled chili sauce and ginger sauce to the pot. There's a problem there in that the redness of the chili sauce clouded the water so it was became hard to see exactly what was cooking in there -- particularly with smaller pieces of scallops and clams.
Our Russian waiter steered us away from the redundancy of ordering the vegetable shabu shabu ($8.95), but also said one shabu shabu order would not be enough for two. Perhaps that's true of a young man his age, but two women could easily share, say, an order of pork (my preference) and perhaps add a side order of beef (6 ounces for $4) or scallops ($2 per piece) for a seafood fix.
Dessert is a half homemade baked "honey apple" served chilled with a coating of sweet yogurt sauce. Our waiter said this was big enough to share, but again, women crave sweets more than the typical male, and I could have polished this off myself.
Shabu Shabu House is worth checking out any time, not just when it's raining or you find the lines too long at neighboring Gyu-Kaku.
1221 Kapiolani Boulevard (between Pensacola and Piikoi streets; validated parking in the back / 597-1655 Shabu Shabu House
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, and 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays
Food 
Service Ambience Value Cost: About $10 per person for lunch; $25 to $30 for two for dinner
See some past restaurant reviews in the Columnists section.
Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to nkam@starbulletin.com
excellent; very good, exceeds expectations; average; below average.
