So this was back in January. Already two months ago, I got together with some friends who had been on a trip to China, at a Chinese restaurant famous for its hot pot. My hopes of blogging in real time are looking pretty crushed. I would love to clear out all the winter posts before spring, but who knows if I can..

Bottles brought along by friends

There was so much strong liquor that some of the bottles we brought never even got opened that day. I take it a bit easier these days~

Beer

I did not tilt the camera; the glass is actually shaped like that.

Side dishes

Was it kaoliang liquor..

It was a bottle bought in China, and for the price it tasted excellent. The world of Chinese liquor seems endless too, but that is not my field, so I have not even gotten started on it.

Guo bao rou

Guo bao rou has to be pork coated in glutinous rice flour and deep-fried, which is why, unlike tangsuyuk, the batter is crispy and chewy at the same time. Honestly you could call it a completely different dish. Anyway, the sauce is sweet, so we ordered it as a warm-up before the spicy hot pot.

Stir-fried eggplant

Besides the hot pot there were quite a lot of dishes, and being Sichuan-style, most of them were spicy.

Dipping sauces

Time to finally fire up the engine.

Vegetables

For the price, a platter like this is decent enough. That said, Maru Shabu, which I visited not long ago, is half the price of this place and still serves a pretty generous spread. It is self-service, sure, but apart from the quality of the meat it held its own against the chain shabu-shabu places in Japan. I have no idea when Korea became a country where you can eat shabu-shabu cheaply.

White broth / red broth

They had loaded it with Sichuan pepper. My whole mouth went numb.

Meat

A different kind of meat from what you get with Japanese shabu-shabu or sukiyaki.

Ingredients

As you would expect from a specialist, there is a wide variety.

Ingredients

Something like glass noodles went in too..

Sausage

Chinese-style sausage.

Shrimp balls

They squeezed the shrimp paste out of a piping bag for us. Fun to watch, and the shrimp flavor was excellent.

Malaxiangguo

It seemed to be the house specialty, so we ordered it, and it was seriously hot. Best to pick out the chilies if you can..

Liquor glass

This is what they bring out as a glass for the kaoliang. Nice touch.

Another bottle brought by a friend

A sweet sparkling red wine from Italy. Very easy to drink, so it was a hit with the ladies. It might be nice to stock up a few bottles and have a glass now and then once the weather turns hot.

This first visit to Malaxiangguo left an impression as a place where you can enjoy the heat of proper Sichuan cooking in Korea. The Sichuan pepper did feel a touch past its freshest, but with so few places in Korea using it at all, there is really nothing to compare it to. My only regret is that I have gotten much weaker with spicy food, so I could not enjoy it the way I used to.

After a good meal we moved on to Aux Petits Verts, a dessert shop nearby. The owner seems to be famous, but I do not watch much TV or media, so I do not know the details.

Tarts

Hmm.. they had a tart that somehow looked a lot like the one at Publique, so I ordered it. It tasted similar too.. but it was a bit pricey.. They sell wine as well, so it is hard to call it a proper dessert shop, yet the atmosphere is too much of a cafe to make drinking the main event.. I am not going to be in that neighborhood often, so I will have to be content with this one visit.

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