shabu shabu in Yilan

Went for shabu shabu on Thursday night with some people from work. When I asked where we were going they said Yilan, I thought they were kidding because it's so far away, they weren't. Yilan is about two hours away on the East coast of the Island. Luckily, they have put in a new freeway that cuts the trip down to 50 minutes. Included in this trip is the longest tunnel in Taiwan. It is 12.9 km and luckily I'm not clausterphobic because it was a little freaky.

We didn't get to Yilan until 8pm but after eating, it was definately worth it. It was the perfect shabu shabu. Buffet style, so you get to choose what you want, with your own individual pot. Every other shabu shabu I've been to it's either, get your own pot and order a set meal, or buffet and you get one pot for the entire table. I don't like the one pot for the entire table idea because for one thing, you lose your food, and for another, Taiwanese people eat weird things that I wouldn't want to take the chance of getting mixed with what I want to eat haha. Remember the duck blood? Exactly.

Here is Elaine enjoying her shabu shabu


This was my second plate of food. Cabbage is great in shabu-shabu and admittedly, I went a little nuts with the lamb...it was so damn good. For some reason, I am addicted to lamb right now.


This is Sammi's pot. One great thing about this shabu-shabu is you get to choose your own soup. Usually the regular soup is fish broth. Sammi got one that has weird nuts and plant things for vegetarians.


This was what I got. It was the "Thailand" choice. It is coconut milk, and while at the beginning I wondered what the hell I did choosing that because I'm not usually a fan of coconut, it was so amazingly good and made my food taste great, I will definately get it next time too.


This is all the Shrimp Anna got to put in hers. I didn't end up getting shrimp. I love it, but I hate the fact that I have to peel it all. It's sort of a pain although, I have gotten pretty good at it now. I used to end up losing all the good parts. Peeling shrimp is a fine art.


When I was choosing my food, I went for some seafood. I love my squid. When I picked up these, Sammi said they were baby octopus. I figured it was cut up and would be really good, until these babies came out of my pot....



Now, I have tried a lot in Taiwan. I have eaten squid when it still has the head on it and shrimp and fish with the eyes..but I just couldn't bring myself to eat these. They were too freaky.