Thousand Cranes Shabu-Shabu

One of those ever so backlog posts. Finally unleashed!

Date night on a rainy evening always means having a hot and steamy bowl of soup. Tapioca and I decided to meet up in Eastwood for a late night grub. I told him to pick out a place. He said how about shabu-shabu? Surely, the guy knows me so well.

thousand cranes shabu-shabu . . .

I've always thought this place to be expensive but  when we checked their menu I was surprised to see a set meal for less than 500 pesos and good for 2 persons. Not bad, huh?

. . . tuna sashimi

Tapioca was already hungry so while waiting for me, he went ahead and ordered a sashimi. He saved a few slices for me to try. How thoughtful! I'd say the sashimi was just okay. I didn't really pay much attention to it as I was more excited for the shabu-shabu. First time ko eh. We chose the beef and seafood set meal which came with the following:

2 types of noodles, corn, egg, vegetable, mushroom, fish balls, etc . . .

The set meal only came with one egg. We thought it's not enough so we ordered 2 more.

. . .  eggs galore!

The set meal was reasonably priced but the extra eggs were expensive :-( Mistake #1. Should have ordered just one egg instead of two. Three was too much.

beef slices, prawns, fish fillets, oysters, clams, squid and sea cucumber . . .

Forget about the bowl of soup. We're getting a huge potful of soup. The set meal only allowed one pot for people to share. We had to pay extra though because I was being greedy and refused to share my pot with Tapioca. Mistake #2 We didn't know the soup was refillable. Should have stuck with one pot instead.

. . . the knob with japanese characters

I don't know how to read Japanese but my guy who likes tinkering on stuff figured out how to operate this.

 mushrooms, tofu slices, fish cake slices and dumplings . . .

We thought the set meal was not enough for the two of us so we ordered more (again). Mistake #3. Our eyes were bigger than our tummies. We ordered way too much for the two of us. The soup + noodles were heavy and I felt so sad for the leftovers which by the way we weren't able to take home.

. . . oysters galore!

Grabe, di naman kami maciado mahilig sa oyster. Pramis hindi talaga.  LOL! Sadly, some of these babies went to waste. Sayang :-(

. . . the condiments.

I'd say this was one healthy option to enjoy a meal since cooking the food didn't require any oil. My only complaint was the food somehow tasted bland no matter I tried dipping it on the sauces. Nevertheless, my first shabu-shabu experience was fun (cooking your own food) and a learning experience (with all the mistakes). On my next visit, I made sure to remember not to do the same boo boo and gained tips on how to enjoy it even more than the first time.

2nd visit with officemates myra, divi, and thirdy's mom . . .

Since Tapioca was not with us we asked for assistance from their waitstaff. First, they helped us operate the electric stove (I still didn't know how to turn them on hihihi!). Then the waitstaff cracked the egg and separated the yolk from the white. The egg whites went to the soup stock while the yolk went to the dipping sauce. I was like eeeww raw egg on my dipping sauce?

. . . the dipping sauce

It turned out to be really yummy. Now food wasn't bland anymore. You can also adjust the spiciness of the soup and the sauce depends  on your preference. Since my companions and I were no big eaters (ahem), no extra order for us.

seafood, chicken and beef slices . . . 

Another tip: Put the food with longer cooking time in the pot first. Once it's almost done you can put the others with lesser cooking time. And don't forget to turn off the heat once you're done otherwise you'll overcook everything.

. . . the aftermath

See, we even had leftovers. Good thing we never paid extra for anything else. Oh well, we did pay extra for our drinks which by the way, did not come with the set meal.

watermelon shake and black gulaman . . . 

Guess which one's my drink?