Sunday 28 August 2011

Korean Hot Pot craving @ White Tomato

White Tomato
160 Burke Street
Melbourne, VIC

 I have this craving for Korean Hot Pot for quite a while, pretty much since Winter start.  I was pretty much hooked on the Korean Hot Pot every Winter.  I found it is a warm and comfort food and comforting my stomach.  Since I moved to Melbourne, I did not once tried the hot pot here.  Mainly because I don't know which restaurant serve the best tasting hot pot.  Now the craving is taking its toll, I cannot told back anymore.  I decided to push my luck and hope for the best from White Tomato.



The restaurant decor was pretty cute and homey.  I love the high ceiling, I feel that it opens up lots of space and looks less cramp.  They also have BBQ sections, both downstairs and upstairs.  M and I sat downstairs since we were having hot pot and a side meal.  It was quite a good spot for me to observe the whole restaurant.  


M left the choice of hot pot to my care, while she picked the side meal - Pan fried beef ($13.50).  I had my mind set on the kimchi, sausage and ham hotpot ($35.90) [two bowls of rice included], mainly because I wanted something spicy with noodle in it.  




The Pan fried beef made an appearance.  It turned out to be quite different from what we imagined after reading the description during the time of order.  The actual dish looked like a Thai omelet, rather than a pan fried beef wrapped with eggs that they claimed.  Tasted quite oily, and the 'omelet' was slightly crunchy due to the flour mixture.  Quite interesting in a way that when I bit through, there was a thin slice of beef hidden inside the egg coating.  I opted out of the soy dipping that they gave us on the side, since I found the omelet itself was OK with the saltiness level.


The four side dishes came out as complementary, to be expected of any Korean restaurants.  The side dishes that we had was Kimchi, Fish cake, Konjac salad and Green salad with cream dressing.  The taste was OK, good side dishes.  I wouldn't say they were the best since I had better from other Korean restaurants in Sydney.


A large bowl of orange/ red colour soup came out from the kitchen, placed on the portable cook top at our table - the Kimchi Hot Pot.  We let it cooked on the stove for a while till it fully boiled.  First sip...quite different stock based from what I used to.  Also, I expected it to be a little bit sour since it was a kimchi hot pot, but it did not turn out that way.  The contents of the hot pot were kimchi, rice cake, chopped sausages and ham (spam to be exact).  M and I could also taste butter from the soup base...not sure whether they put any in, but it was quite strong and the soup was rather thick as if they put corn flour to thicken it. 

My craving for the hot pot was just lightly suppressed since the White Tomato's hot pot wasn't quite satisfying.  After the meal, I made a mental note to myself that next time, I wouldn't be ordering a hot pot here but I may try other dishes on the menu from there.


+Disclaimer: The commentary contained in this blog is purely based on my own opinion and experience at the time of visit. Taste is a subjective and yours and mine can be differed.

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