Splurge Meal @ HuHot

My boys are HUGE eaters, they always have been.  I've seen them polish off 3 heaping big plates of food at a buffet and then have dessert.

Recently, we've been trying to teach them portions and smarter choices.  That anything is okay in moderation and you are even permitted to throw all that to the wind...on occasion.  Yesterday's lunch was one of those times.

Rabbit and Horse both like Mongolian BBQ.  We've been to many mom and pop places in California.  Kenosha, unfortunately, is completely lacking in good or even decent Asian restaurants.  We go to a chain place here called HuHot Mongolian BBQ.  If I don't view it as real Asian food then it's a pretty decent place.

The reasons the boys like to go is 1)  It's a buffet.  2) They get to create their own dishes.

Rabbit and Horse putting together their meal

If you've never been to a restaurant of this type, this is how it works.  You grab a bowl and go up to the buffet line.  They have thin sliced meats (chicken, beef, pork at the very least), tofu, plain noodles, and cut up veggies (cabbage, bean sprouts, zukes, mushrooms, water chestnuts, onions, bell pepper, pineapple, tomatoes, cilantro and a whole lot more).  You pile up what you want in a bowl (or two bowls)  then you head over to the sauce bar.  Mom and Pop places usually have 4 or 5 including teriyaki and kun pao.  HuHot does out of the ordinary stuff, check out their website.  Ladle in at least 5 ladles of these, you can mix and match.  Then you can add additional seasonings like lemon juice, garlic or ginger water, wine, sesame or chili oil.

My food on the grill

When that's all done you take your bowl up to a counter.  The cooks throw it on a huge round flat grill.  Each to it's own section.  You can watch them cook it.  It's a show for the kids in itself .  On a busy night there might be 8-10 different meals cooking at one time. (the grill looks like a mess but they had just finished a few orders, they clean the grill before starting on the next order)  When it's done they scoop it into a clean plate and hand it back to you.  You can usually add different toppings such as crunchy chop suey noodles, peanuts, hot chili sauce, sesame seeds or coconut.  Then take it back to your table.

My finished plate.  I added coconut, sesame seeds and chili paste.

My boys love to cook and in this way they can experiment to their hearts content.  The boys ate 3 plates each but hey, they are on vacation.