A guide to Japanese hotpots

NEWLY-OPENED Mo-Mo Paradise in Lot 10 Shopping Centre, Bukit Bintang, is offering diners unlimited refills of meat and vegetables within 100 minutes.
One of Japan’s most successful shabu-shabu and sukiyaki restaurant, Mo-Mo Paradise can be found in nine countries, including Malaysia, serving up traditional Japanese hotpot with a modern twist.
Diners can choose between shabu-shabu or sukiyaki, or opt for the mixed course.
The selection of various cuts of meat – including locally-sourced sakura pork, and imported Australian beef – is then paired with more than 20 different types of fresh vegetables to be cooked by the diner at the table.
The name shabu-shabu refers to the sound emitted when the ingredients are stirred in the cooking pot, before it is served with two specially-brewed dipping sauces imported from Japan – a citrus-based sauce (ponzu) with chopped garlic and grated radish or sesame sauce (gomadare).
Simply dip the meat pieces in the original light soup base of kombu, celery, onion, carrot and shitake for no more than three seconds each. Then, dip the cooked meat into the sauce of your choice.
Alternatively, sukiyaki is every bit as sweet as it is savoury, thanks to its carefully-selected ingredients from Japan.
Its rich flavour, made of mirin and salty-sweet soy-based broth, marinates the thinly sliced meat and vegetables perfectly.
With sukiyaki, place all the meat and vegetables together into the pot, and let it simmer until they are cooked.
This may take a while, as the broth consistency is much denser than shabu-shabu. However, the broth can be watered down if you find it to be too salty for your taste buds.
The highlight of the authentic sukiyaki experience, which is also my favourite part, is where a beaten raw egg mixture becomes the dipping sauce.
As daunting as it seems to use raw egg as a dipping sauce, it was surprisingly tasty, and it also compliments and enhances the taste of the cooked meat and vegetables.
For more, visit the Mo-Mo Paradise Facebook page.