Hot Pot!

Chubby Cattle is a Mongolian style hot

pot restaurant. The difference between 

Japanese and Mongolian hot pot is in the

broth. Japanese is generally simple with

minimal flavorings where Mongolian has

bold,  spicy flavors. Chubby Cattle has a 

great variety of items from simple to exotic.

Everything we have experienced is very

fresh and flavorful. As you are eating a 

refrigerated conveyor brings selections

for your hot pot by. You grab what you

want and are charged by plate numbers

and colors at the end. They also have a

sauce bar where you can custom make

your dipping sauce. This is one of Dawn

and I's favorite new restaurants and we

highly recommend it

Beef and mushrooms...my favorites.

―――

We discovered East West Shabu Shabu 

while on a Disneyland vacation a few years

ago. It's only about 10 miles from Disneyland 

and definitely worth the drive. We've been
back several times since. It's one of our
favorites.

―――

The top left and mine on the right below is

sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is cooked in a skillet 

with a much more flavorful cooking liquid.

The sauce is usually made from soy sauce,

mirin, sugar and water. Mirin is a Japanese

rice wine with a low alcohol content and a

high sugar content. I tend to like sukiyaki 

more then shabu shabu. To me the flavors 

are bolder.

Swish is a solid Japanese hot pot restaurant 

that we have been going to for years. They

specialize in Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki.

The meat we've gotten over the years is

generally high quality as are the vegetables.

Prices are reasonable for what you get, and

they also have a menu of sides and sushi. If

you are in Las Vegas give them a try...I recommend it. Click here for
a short video overview.

―――

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is an all

you can eat hot pot restaurant in Calgary.

They have a good selection of items and

everything came out fresh. The broth

was tasty and we both enjoyed it. Being all

you can eat we were both stuffed at the

end. This generally doesn't happen with

hot pot. The only negatives were no ponzu 

sauce or onions. Other then that it's definitely 

worth checking out.

―――

Sushi Maru serves Sushi/Shabu Shabu in

Northgate, just north of Seattle. There is

also a location in Spokane. I don't think the

Spokane branch has hot pot though. It's 

been a few years since we've tried this 

restaurant. It's a conveyor type sushi 

restaurant that also does Shabu Shabu.

It was good, you may want to check out

some newer reviews before trying it though.

Here  is a video of our experience there,

which was around four years ago.

And finally we come to our homemade 

hot pot. Ours is always tasty and fun. The

only thing we struggle with is getting the

meat sliced thin enough.

These are our favorite hot pot restaurants.

We have tried a few more (Shanghai Lilly

comes to mind), but these are the best. I 

encourage everyone to give hot pot a try.

Get out of your comfort zone and try 

something new. Hot pot is flavorful to

eat, fun to partake in and also pretty 

healthy. Give it a try!

🔗Links...🔗

Swish

Chubby Cattle

Sushi Maru

Eater article on Las Vegas Hot Pot

Andrew Zimmern eating at Chubby Cattle

A beginners guide to hot pot

Shabu-vs-Sukiyaki

Information and recipes

⩩

Wrapping up the Trip at Universal Orlando!

A very nice day for early February!

The beautiful Royal Pacific Resort.

Breakfast in the Island's Dining Room at

the Royal Pacific. I had the Eggs Benedict 

 and Dawn had the buffet. This is a great spot

for a tasty, relaxing breakfast.

Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. Dawn had

the Ploughman's and I had the fish and

chips. We shared the Scotch Eggs. Everything 

was good but honestly this place is more about

the atmosphere. If you are a Harry Potter fan 

it is very cool.

Hogwarts Castle 

The Sweet Shop...check out all the cool

candies below. Can you find the chocolate 

frogs?

Cheers...gotta love butterbeer.

Going to Universal brings out the caveman 

in me. I have to get one of these huge, smoky 

delicious turkey legs. I think Michael had one

too....Yum!

This has to be the highlight of the day.

Michael and I love Beetlejuice and were

thrilled to see him on the way out of the

park. He couldn't have been any cooler.

Ahhh..the legendary Lard Lad donut. If

you're at Universal Orlando it is a must

try. The Lard Lad big pink is a giant donut.

It will easily feed two to three people. The

best I can describe it is a cross between a donut 

and a cake. Either way it's delicious. Try one,

you won't be sorry.

Michael hanging with his good buddy, Milhouse.

A few of our favorite rides. The Hollywood 

Rocket...You pick your own music to listen to

on this roller coaster. The Incredible Hulk

is another wild coaster. Spiderman is one

of my all time favorite rides. Here is a video 

of Dawn, Michael, Yosh and Logan on

Storm Force Accelatron. As fast as they were

spinning I thought they would all be sick.

Men in Black...this is a fun ride. You

compete against other riders. As you

go through the ride you shoot aliens 

and it tallies your score. At the end it

displays every one's scores and the

highest wins.

For the last meal of the trip Mom and Dad

bought everyone dinner at Toothsome 

Chocolate Emporium. It's a steam punk

themed restaurant that specializes in

desserts and huge milkshakes.

Pretty tasty food. The french onion soup

was really good. I had the forest mushroom 

flatbread. It was good. I think Dawn had the

shrimp and lump crab macaroni and cheese.

That's a big bite Yosh!

Dessert is the real star at Toothsome. I had

the banana cream pie sundae. It was very

sweet, but tasty. Dawn had some kind of

brownie sundae.

Michael and Dawn in front of Mel's Diner.

Giordano's Pizza, just down the street

from the Royal Pacific. Look at all that

cheese!

Citywalk at night...



And that brings to a close a wonderful 

vacation. Universal Studios was a great

way to wrap it all up. For thrill rides it's 

hard to beat Universal. The two Harry

Potter rides are cutting edge. The Hollywood 

Rocket is one of the wilder rides I've been

on and you can't forget Spiderman and

Jurassic Park. Unfortunately Jurassic Park 

was closed for renovation while we were

there. Simpson's land is another very

cool thing about Universal Orlando. The

food at Universal is quite good. I would

say they are giving Disney a run for their

money. All in all a great vacation that our

entire family will always remember.

Links...

A short video of Megatron.

Toothsome Chocolate Emporium

Giordano's Pizza

Island's Dining Room

The Leaky Cauldron

Waiting in line for the Simpsons Ride

Otter's Fizzy Orange Juice 

Disney World!

Our day started early with a mad dash to the new
Flights of Passage ride in Pandora at Animal 
Kingdom. We only had to wait in line about 20
minutes so our plan worked. The ride is amazing,
everyone needs to check it out. I would say it's in
my top 3 amusement park rides.

After Flights of Passage we ran over

and got in line for Na,Vi River Journey.

I think that line had around a 35 minute

wait. The river journey is visually stunning 

but is over pretty quickly and may not be

worth waiting over an hour for.

The work that went into creating Pandora

is amazing. It really seems like you're on

a different planet.

Dawn and Melissa grabbed a drink

and a snack at Pongu Pongu. The drink

is the Night Blossom. It's layers of fruit

juice with boba balls. Dawn liked it. I

thought it was good but very sweet. The

snack is Pineapple Lumpia. Pineapple 

Lumpia is cream cheese mixed with 

pineapple, wrapped in a lumpia wrapper 

and deep fried. Dawn didn't care for it

but I thought it was really good.

The floating islands of Pandora.

After checking out Pandora we ran

over to Dino Land to hop on Dinosaur.

This is always a fun, exciting ride. Very

interesting line before the ride too. I 

spotted several fossils on display that

were on loan from Montana State

University. After the ride we decided 

it was time to head to Disney Studios 

and EPCOT.

A nice view down Hollywood Blvd.

This was right before the March of

the First Order. Captain Phasma leads

a squad of stormtroopers up Hollywood 

Blvd. To watch a video I took of it click

here!

Dawn's favorite ride. I still can't 

believe they got rid of it in California.

Lunch was at the ABC Commissary.

I had a chicken club and Dawn had the

shrimp. I think Michael had a burger. My

chicken club was ok, nothing special though.

Dawns shrimp, on the other hand, were great.

     If you're a fan of Aerosmith you
will love this ride!

           

Quack...

In EPCOT we headed straight for

World Showcase to check out the

festival of the arts. Every country

puts out a special menu for this

festival. We were eager to see what 

we could find. Above was my first

stop, The Refreshment Port. There I

found an amazing looking bloody mary

and delicious Canadian cheddar

cheese soup. The bloody mary was the

Stow Away Mary. It was garnished with

celery, blue cheese olives, tomatoes and

a big fried chicken nugget. It was all

good, I did give Michael the chicken 

nugget thought. At $12 it was a bit

pricey but probably worth it. The

cheddar cheese soup was cheesy,

creamy and very good. I think it's 

available all year at the Refreshment 

Port now. Previously you could only

get it at Le Cellier.

Dawn's favorite...the caramel shop

in Germany.

My dad, Michael and I love Mission

Space. No one else will ever go on it

though. It's a very cool simulator of a

mission to mars complete with g forces

and simulated weightlessness. Very fun

but it is somewhat intense. The picture 

below is from inside the cockpit. Click

here for a short video I took.

Dawn had to try out the sushi in

Japan. It was good. The texture of

the dessert was a bit odd but the

flavor was good.

Below was Dawn's favorite item.

The Deconstructed Strawberry 

Cheesecake. I didn't try it but she

said it was amazing. Sure looks

Good.

The Spiced Beef with pine nuts, dried

cherries and hummus above was probably 

my favorite item of the night. Everything

was perfectly balanced in it. The

Mediterranean Flat Bread was also tasty.

If I recall correctly Melissa bought these

for us to share...good choice.

Below is Dawn's  Charcuterie board.

Meats and cheeses...can't go wrong

with that.

Above and below are menu items

Mom and Dad tried. My mom had

the chicken and lamb shawarma

platter. She loved it and said the

tzatziki sauce really stood out. Dad

had the Roasted Pork Roulade and

said it was very good.

The Almond Frangipane Cake on

the bottom was good but nothing

special and the Pop'tArt was really

good. I wish i had tried it.

Enjoying Kaki Gori (shaved ice)

from Japan. I had tangerine and
cherry.

We stayed at Shades of Green this

Trip. Melissa is retired military so

we were able to stay with her. The

grounds are very nice as is the entire

resort. It has a little less Disney theming

 then the other resorts. We didn't 

really have time to explore, but we

did eat at the buffet, which was good. I 

basically had a Thanksgiving dinner...

Yum!

The best gas station ever has the best

breakfast sandwich ever. It was so

good. When I think about the trip

this is one of the things that stands

out to me. Funny.....

I didn't think it was possible to pack as

much into one day as we did. It was 

tiring but so worth it. Animal

Kingdom, Disney Studios and EPCOT 

all in one day. Not to mention looking 

around and trying all the food at the

Festival of the Arts. We were dragging 

by the end of the day. What a great way

to get a vacation started though. At this

point we still had a seven day cruise on

one of the biggest cruise ships in the world 

and a couple days at Universal Studios to

look forward to. Coming up next...

Universal Studios.

A fun group in Morocco 

Links...

Click here for a ride on Spaceship Earth.

Click here for the morning rush at

Animal Kingdom.

Shades of Green