[Fountain Valley] [Japanese] California Shabu-Shabu

California Shabu-Shabu
18908 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 963-8844
http://www.californiashabushabu.com

It was cold and raining, and we wanted something warm for dinner.  Shabu shabu!  I did a quick search on the internet, and found California Shabu-Shabu in Fountain Valley.  Perfect!  We can even go grocery shopping at Fresh and Easy there afterward.



We got there around 6:30pm.  We were lucky that they just had two seats left.




One side of the room has the higher table.  We were seated at the lower table side.


Vegetable Plate

As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought each of us a plate of vegetable.  There were cabbage, tofu, seaweed, broccoli, green onion, green leaf veggie, carrot, enoki mushroom, glass noodle, and udon noodle in the plate.


Peanut Sauce / Ponzu Sauce

We also got two dipping sauces, peanut sauce and ponzu sauce.  Peanut sauce is usually used for vegetables and seafood, and ponzu sauce is used for meat.



On the table, there were also some chopped green onion, grated radish, and minced garlic.



I add all three ingredients to my ponzu sauce to make it even more yummy!  I LOVE ponzu sauce.  I can just drink this alone.


Base Soup

The base soup for shabu-shabu is just water with a piece of kombu (dried kelp).  The final flavor of the soup depends on what you add (or cook) in the soup.



I always like to add veggies first, then cook the meat briefly piece by piece.


Prime Beef (Large 13 Pieces) ($22.50)

Dr. P ordered a large Prime Beef.  It has 13 big pieces of sliced beef.  The difference between regular beef and the prime beef is the fat.  The prime has just the right amount of fat, which made the meat tasted super tender and juicy.


Pork (Regular 9 Pieces) ($15.00)

I ordered a regular size pork, which had 9 pieces.  The pork was great.  But I think Dr. P's prime beef tasted better.



The order came with a bowl of rice.  After we finished our meat and the rice, the waiter brought us two soup bowls.  The soup bowls had some seasoning sauce in it.  I'm not sure what kind of sauce is it though.


Udon Soup

We cooked the udon last, and poured the rest of the veggies and soup along with udon noodle in the soup bowl.  The soup was sooooooo good!  My soup and Dr. P's soup actually tasted differently since we had different meat in our soup.  After this bowl of noodle soup, my stomach was about to pop.



We finished eating around 8pm, and there were so many people waiting for seats.  I really like this place.  They served good quality meat.  Everything is fresh, and very delicious.  Service was pretty good.  I want to go back again already!  Maybe next time we'll go try their lunch special.  Prices are much cheaper during lunch time.

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