Jo Ju Tofu Hot Pot

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother playing golf at all.  It is a game based on repetition and practice.  So it is no surprise I suck since I only get out to play a few times a year.  This time around, it took until September for me to hit the links.  It may not even have happened if Costanza and Snake hadn't convinced me to join them for an early morning tee off time of 7:30am.  I guess I shouldn't have played that 11:30pm hockey game the night before eh?  Well after our round, we went searching for eats and ended up at a new spot called JoJu Tofu Hot Pot.

Costanza and I decided to share both the Marinated Tripe and Pig's Ear to start.  Snake didn't want any part of it because I guess snakes don't eat tripe and ear?  Well he was smart to decline because we found both to be pretty average, especially the tripe where there was a considerable amount of residual braising liquid that had gelatinized on the tripe.  As for the ear, it was okay, but sliced a bit too thick for our liking.  We also had the Chicken Nuggets which arrived in an alarmingly small portion.  Despite its pale appearance, the exterior was lightly crispy and dusted with salt and pepper (batter seemed off though).  The meat was succulent and cooked just enough.

For my main, I had the Original Fish Soup Hot Pot with bean thread noodle.  I found the soup to be mildly spicy with a background sweetness.  It wasn't bursting with fish or seafood flavour despite their presence within the noodles.  As for the noodles, they were a bit soft for my liking.  There wasn't a whole lot of seafood, but it could be forgiven since the dish cost under $8.00.  Costanza ended up with the Fried Pork Chop on rice.  As much as the panko coating was crispy, it slid off pretty easily.  Furthermore, the pork was not seasoned enough where it tasted like plain ol' pork.  It was tender though.  He wasn't really all that impressed with the dish.

Snake opted for the Signature BBQ Meat with the same seemingly random accompaniments of spicy tofu, veggies and lightly fried egg.  Moist and only slightly charred, the BBQ pork was dwarfed by the amount of rice and various items on the plate.  Hence, the whole dish was lacking flavour.  But it was large in portion size, especially for the low price of $7.75.  For my drink, I had the Mango Slush which was icy and somewhat chunky.  It did taste okay though with natural mango flavour while easy on the sugar.  In the end, we didn't spend a whole lot of money for the amount of food on the table.  Yet, something was just odd about the food.  It was edible, but really that was it.  Nothing special and definitely nothing I'm dying to try again.  Now if you only had $10.00 in your pocket, you could get a filling meal here granted that you aren't picky.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Large portions
- Staff really try hard

The Bad:
- Food is meh
- Food is unrefined