iPot gets better with more choices

Tried this place before, once as a tasting and then came back as a paying customer.

This time tried the new broth and saw some improvements!!!
They now have hot water and plain tea for those who do not want to drink fizzy drinks or sweet teas.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Photos of the restaurant:

The new broth flavours:

Kumquat and chicken
{the pairing of Kumquat and chicken sounds good but I would prefer grapefruit or orange because Kumquat has a strong bitterness.}

Shaoxing wine and chicken


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Drinks and hotpot items:



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The items I got for my hotpot:



Delicious lean slices of lamb.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken and shaoxing wine hotpot:



It is eaten in a similar way like those chicken pots where you eat the chicken first and add broth to the remaining sauce to make it into a hotpot broth.

After you are done with the chicken, they will put some of that thick sauce in a bowl which you can use later as a dip and they highly recommended the sauce for the glass noodles.
Anyway, I loved the chicken because it was marinated in wine which makes it tender and silky because of the yeast.
It would have been good if there was a fork because it was hard eating big pieces of slippery chicken with bone using chopsticks.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Instant noodles:

There were two types of instant noodles and these were the best because the strands are thinner and it is slightly flavoured so when they become soft, it just adheres the tasty broth and the noodles become really delicious.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
What I ate:

They recommended glass vermicelli with the broth which tasted great after more sauce was added but I felt that the instant noodles tasted better.


I definitely like this new broth which will become successful because it is similar to a non spicy version of the chicken pot.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎
iPot - The Shabu Shabu Expert
G/F, 11 Lau Li Street, Tin Hau

A big hotpot to myself at Cook Idea

In Sai Kung, it is mainly boring seafood, crappy Chinese food and Western food.

Sai Kung is getting better these days because there is more Western food.

Chinese food is definitely not an option because villagers don't seem to cook it right.

However, this place is really cool especially their hotpots.

On my last visit I had noodles but I could smell the hotpots smelling good so came back for it.
They were really nice and let me order a hotpot and just noodles.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Hotpot with chicken in herbal soup:


The soup was rich with a strong chicken and herb taste. It had the usual herb bitterness which was balanced by the sweetness of th red dates.
On this visit, I had white meat which was lovely and tender.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

The hotpot was a bargain because the noodles and hotpot did not cost more than $60.

Girly hotpot

I have to admit I have not a big fan of hotpot because it revolves around meat and noisy places but when I saw the press release for this place, the food looked healthy and it is located on the second floor of Lodgewood hotel.
There are not many hotels that offer a place just for hotpots.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lodgewood hotel and reception area:



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Photos of canton pot:


Private rooms

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beers:

There are so many international beers from Germany to Belgium.

My favourite was the strawberry beer which had a strong strawberry taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apricot tea:

Aromatic apricot tea.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Hotpot broths and condiments:

Top left: Braised fish head with Chinese herbs $278
Top right: Fish maw & whelk broth $138
Bottom left: Mixed mushrooms soup $108
Bottom right: Short ribs soup in Korean style $228

My favourites were the mixed mushrooms and braised fish head because it seriously had a strong taste.

For condiments & sauces which cost $23 per person, there was:
Scallion
Minced Garlic
Thick broad bean sauce
Japanese sesame sauce
Crispy garlic
Chopped onion
Red chili
Preserved bean curd
Fermented bean curd
Peanut sauce
Chaozhou chili oil
Satay sauce
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Assorted dumpling platter (12pc) $158:

(Crab roe & coral clams dumplings, kimchi & mixed mushrooms dumplings, morel mushrooms & Kurobuta pork dumplings).
The crab roe and coral clams were springy and tasted similar to wontons and the other nice one was the pork dumplings with strong morel mushrooms in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Featured mushrooms platter $348:

(includes tremella frondosa, chanterelle, fresh shiitake mushrooms, Japanese mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, pleurotus eryngii, oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, portobello, etc; available seasonally)
Mushrooms lovers will love this!!
My favourite was the tremella frondosa (middle) which has the same texture as sea cucumber and it was quite viscous.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Hungarian Mangalica boneless pork collar $298:

The pork was soft and supple when it was ready to eat.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Australian organic beef rib eye $248:

Nice lean slices with not much fat content.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Mixed mushrooms in tofu pouches $88:

The tofu pouches were great, inside were yummy finely diced mixed mushrooms with an earthy meaty tone.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Mixed meatballs $98:

(mixed with shrimp, cuttlefish, asparagus & Yunnan ham)
These meatballs were springy and tasty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Organic tofu $38:

Silky and smooth tofu with a strong soybean taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Seasonal vegetables and organic sweetcorn:

Sweet and fresh vegetables
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
I am not a fan of Chinese desserts so my favourite was the serradura and the yuzu jelly I found a bit too sweet.
Black Sesame soya milk pudding $58:

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Double boiled pear with chuan bei and dried mandarin peel $58:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Aloe vera yuzu jelly $58:


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grass jelly, almond pudding with pomelo and sago in mango sweet soup:


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Serradura $48:


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green tea & red beans panna cotta:


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cute notebook set given by the hotel's PR which represents the three hotels:
Lodgewood, LIS and Forte.



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Canton Pot:

2/F, Lodgewood, 1131 Canton Road,Mong Kok

Champions

Champ Hot Pot (Tsim Sha Tsui)
Thanks to KC for treating us to a Hotpot!
Honestly, I was so honoured to be invited.
It was not just dinner, but we learnt so much from him.

Hotpot reviews are difficult to comment because it all depends on the broth and what they have on the menu to dunk in the pot.

The broth here was really cool, it was a whole chicken on top of a wintermelon, beneath the wintermelon there were cordecep flowers which is named similar to cordeceps but they are not cordeceps.


The broth was really good and we picked some pretty cool stuff too!
The scallops were for the hotpot, fresh and sweet, but don't put them in for too long because they will turn chewy.

Then there were beef balls which I was not keen but they were surprisingly nice, they were elastic with a strong beef taste.

Then the squid balls were impressive because it had salted egg yolk inside giving it extra flavour.

Pig's liver is my favourite but I never know when it is cooked properly, but KC showed us the signs to look for when its cooked.
Here the liver done by KC!
Yummy of course, just like the ones at Wai Kee, velvety and springy.

The FRESH fish gas bladder was a rare item, I've never seen it offered at other hotpots.
They were so fresh that they had a pearlescent pink colour.
I loved the gelatin sticky texture.

We also ordered my favourite beehive tofu which was very porous and absorbs lots of broth without over powering the strong soybean taste.

There were two types of dumplings: pork and foie gras.
I was not keen on the pork because it had pieces of fat in it but its meant to be normal.
The foie gras one fared better because it had pieces of water chestnut in it which gave it a sweet tone.

Most people have probably burnt their tongues by the end because hotpot food is hot, so I was glad they had icecream sandwiches to sooth the tongue.