LIttle Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot

Tonight I had no idea what I wanted for dinner.  I had tried to make a reservation at a seafood restaurant in La Jolla, but couldn't get anything before 8:45 pm.  I was definitely not going to wait that long, so I did a little surfing and came across Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot.  I'd heard of hot pot before, and seen it in t.v. food shows, but I'd never actually had it.  I'm always up for trying authentic ethnic cuisine so I decided that's where we were going to go.

First off, for a place I'd never heard of before the place was huge and packed.  My roommate and I seemed to be the only caucasians there who weren't with Asian friends or relatives, (Always a good sign!) and the smell coming out the door was amazing.  It smelled spicy and woodsy and meaty.

 There was a short wait.  The front entry of the restaurant is very chilly, but I imagine that's because the dining room is full of steam from the pots on the tables.  When we were seated, we were given a menu on which one is to mark off the items that they want.  First is the broth.  You have a choice of their original, spicy original, half & half or vegetarian broth.  Then choose your meats.  There are too many choices to list here but include various kinds of beef, lamb, chicken, pork, seafood, tofu, meat and fish balls, blood cake and on and on.  Next the vegetables, then the noodles and accompaniments.  Many of the choices are available in half orders, which was good for us since we were only 2 people.  Their online menu only shows a fraction of the items that are available, and features the items that would be most palatable to the average American diner.

I like spicy foods, my roommate, not so much, so we got the half & half broth.  We both like beef, and if you've read my blog before you probably know I love lamb, so we got the lamb and beef combo.  We had considered getting chicken, but the only option was breast meat which I don't care for.  I also ordered a 1/2 order of tripe.  I'm not sure if that was more because I wanted it, or just to annoy my roommate.  Because the majority of the vegetables were ones I wasn't very familiar with, I decided to play it safe on our first time out.  We got Napa cabbage, spinach, corn, enoke mushrooms, seaweed knots, wide fresh noodles and lamb won ton.  We also ordered the sesame pancake, which was not a pancake at all but a fairly dense bread that was crisp on the outside and covered with sesame seeds, Mongolian kimchi and street style lamb skewers.

Many cultures have their own version of a hot pot.  I have had other culture's versions of hot pot before which usually have a fairly bland broth, I was not expecting the strong aroma of the broth.  It smelled spicy and delicious with an overpowering woodsiness.  I'm not sure what it was flavored with, but it did take a moment to get used to, it had a very strong umami flavor.  Besides green onions and garlic there were various pods in it including goji berries and dragon fruit pods.  I wasn't able to identify the others.  The lamb skewers also had that same distinctive woodsy flavor.  The kimchi was totally unlike other kinds of kimchi I've had before.  It was spicy but it was also sweet and crunchier than others.  It was probably my favorite item of the whole meal.

The staff were very helpful and patient.  At first we had marked many other items on the menu, but the waiter looked at it, suggested it was too much for the two of us and helped us decide what to take off.  When we were done, one of the waitresses packed up our leftovers for us as I'm sure we would have made a mess of it.  At the end of the meal they brought orange slices to the table.  The oranges were a perfect way to end the meal, cleansing and cooling the pallet.

The only problem I had with this restaurant was that the wall we were seated next to probably could have been wiped down a little better after the previous diners had finished.

I'm sure next time we go it will be an even better experience as we will have a better idea of what to order.  I am definitely looking forward to it.