Everything about living in Korea: [Food_hotpot] 'Shabu Shabu' franchise 'Chae Sun Dang'

It seems like the number of franchise eateries are growing rapidly while independent restaurants are closing down at a fast pace. (Kinda sad...thinking Korea's big conglomerates are bullying around small business owners)

Anyway, I don't have anything against franchise restaurants. I like it sometimes when I'm in an unfamiliar neighborhood in Korea, and want to be safe in choosing my meals. In that sense, franchise are not bad choices.

One of the many chains, I go to 'Shabu Shabu' places alot. (Call it hot pot/suki yaki/shabu shabu whatever. It's one of those dishes where you have a hot boiling pot in front of you and you dip your vegetables, noodles, meat in the broth for few seconds before chowing down). It sounds weird at first, but it's really good if you haven't tried it yet. This type of cooking style is well practiced in Asian countries (Greater China, Japan, Thailand....etc) but called in different names.

So, if you're in the mood for something asian, but are not really confident about your choice of restaurant, you can rely on food chains like this.

Location : all over Seoul
Price : 10,000 ~15,000 KRW / person

This includes type of meat (or more veggies if you're vegetarian. Make sure to check for vegetarian broth), fresh noodles & usually some fried/porridge style rice will be served at the end

What to do at the restaurant

choose your broth, meat (or veg), and check your sides. Start putting the vegetables first into the broth because it takes longer for them to cook (unless you like them raw). Once it looks like they're starting to soften (few minutes), dip your beef (or whatever) into the broth for less than a minute, and take them out to your personal plate. Try the dipping sauce as you please (usually either spicy/nutty/soy sauce), and enjoy!
After you finish your meat, put in the noodles, cook for a few minutes and enjoy! After you are done, you can ask your server to cook either porridge/fried rice using the broth you have eaten.

It's very common to share food at a Korean restaurant, and if you are appalled by the idea, this is a good choice since you can use tongs to put food into the broth and only eat out of your personal plate.