Mapo shabu-shabu restaurant for a mother’s lunch: Shabu in Seoul

Filial-duty day is back after a long time! I looked around near Hongdae and Hapjeong for a lunch with Mom, but walking has been hard for her lately, so Hongdae—with its difficult parking—was a pass! It had to be somewhere easy to park, and since she does not like heavily seasoned food, I settled on shabu-shabu.

Hapjeong shabu-shabu chosen for my picky mother

<Introducing Mom> She has only said a meal out was delicious a handful of times. She dislikes busy, noisy buffets. She is more of a vegetable person than a meat person. There are not many things she feels like eating. She is quite sensitive and picky. Ah, can I satisfy Mom today? Haha

Shabu in Seoul Hapjeong Branch is on B2 of the Delight Square 1 building in Hapjeong. One thing to note: you must park in Delight Square 1 to receive parking-time validation! The tables are partitioned, giving the place a cozy feel. Piano music played throughout the meal, which was so relaxing, haha. Mom hates the bustling, market-like buffet atmosphere where people keep walking back and forth while you eat, so she gave it a passing grade right away because it was calm.

One order each of salchisal and boseopsal

It is filial-duty day, so we are having the expensive stuff!!! Mom does not usually eat much meat, so I decided to order beef especially for today.

I know salchisal, but boseopsal? Boseopsal is a lean, mild-tasting cut from the cow’s rump. Let’s order one serving each of salchisal and boseopsal.

Once you order, the pot comes out first, and it is quite distinctive. It seemed to be hefty stainless steel, and the hammered-looking pattern was striking.

Clear mushroom broth and three sauces

You can choose from five broths. But the broth you choose changes the finishing dish you can have at the end. I was curious about the beef tomato broth, and I also wanted to choose sukiyaki broth for the yakisoba. But! Considering Mom’s tastes, I chose clear mushroom broth, haha. Of course, in true half-and-half fashion, you can also split the broths. If you do, though, kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) is the only finishing meal available!

Here comes the clear mushroom broth. The three musketeers of sauce: sesame, yuzu soy sauce, and chili. You can add minced garlic and chilies to taste. I liked that the sauces came in neat glass bottles instead of squeeze tubes; they felt freshly filled rather than like sauces every table had been using.

The shabu vegetables and mushrooms included napa cabbage, bok choy, enoki mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, bean sprouts, and more. The kabocha squash made the colors so appetizing, but it was thin and disappeared somewhere once cooked, haha. It was a little unusual to have glass noodles included. As a total glass-noodle devotee, I loved that!

Isn’t the color of this beef amazing??? The salchisal had some marbling, while the boseopsal had almost no fat. The plating looked so fancy that I puffed my shoulders out a little in front of Mom, haha.

Once the broth starts boiling, put in the vegetables first and let them cook. While the vegetables and mushrooms cook, chat with Mom about this and that, haha. It is the same stuff we always talk about, but I listened to it as if it were new again.

During the break, I wrote a photo review and got dumplings too, haha. Now it was time for the beef to enter.

Salchisal that vanished in the mouth, mild boseopsal

I put in the salchisal first. Mom’s first words were:

The meat is incredibly tender.

The salchisal was so tender it practically disappeared as soon as it went into my mouthㅠㅠ A glass-noodle devotee’s technique for fishing out glass noodles! I ate all of them, haha. Next, I tried the boseopsal, which was a little thicker than the salchisal. Since it was leaner, it was mild, but it felt less tender than the salchisal. If I come back, I think I will order only salchisal next time.

I do not usually like chili sauce, so I passed. I am normally a sesame- or peanut-sauce person with shabu-shabu, but today it was the yuzu sauce!!! Its subtle yuzu aroma gave it such lovely savory depth. Four sheets of rice paper were provided, so we also made wolnam ssam (Vietnamese-style rice-paper wraps). Sesame sauce is definitely the right match for those.

Finishing with barley rice egg porridge and omija tea

We added in the dumplings from the review event too. At this point, the full-stomach situation was realㅠㅠ But even when full, you cannot give up the final egg porridge! A staff member came over to make the egg porridge and asked how salty the broth had been before making it. I said it was slightly salty, so they added more broth before preparing it.

A drizzle of sesame oil, a topping of crushed seaweed, and it was done! Here is the key point: Mom tasted a little of the sesame oil first. When I asked why, she said she was checking whether it had that stale-oil smell, haha. Thankfully, it got the OK sign, and we could eat itㅠ

It used barley rice rather than plain white rice, so the little chewy bites were nice. And whether it was young-radish pickle or jangajji (soy-pickled vegetables), it paired incredibly well with the porridge and gave the meal a refreshing finish.

Omija tea came out for dessert. Such a pretty color tooㅠㅠ It freshened my mouth so much that I did not even think about coffee. As we left after finishing everything, Mom said that thanks to me, she had eaten really well and enjoyed it. What a rare piece of positive feedback to hearㅠㅠ Filial-duty day at Shabu in Seoul: success!