Tong Yang

We were first introduced to the "Hot Pot" experience by Erika & Beng in the late eighties, and if I remember right, they brought us to the Tong Yang restaurant located at the Pan Pacific Hotel along Adriatico St. in Ermita.  We've been able to visit the other branches of Tong Yang at Quezon Boulevard, but it seems that we haven't gone back in some 4-5 years.  Today was jang-jang day for Kong, Gwam, Monique & myself, and we found ourselves wandering around SM City in Fairview.  To our delight, the Tong Yang branch there offered a special promo price of only P299 per head for weekday lunch eat-all-you-can, and since all of us were famished, we went in and tried the restaurant.  We were not disappointed!  Our grilled items consisted of thinly sliced beef, chicken skewers and shrimps, all cooked with special sauces.  Monique even tried to make some scrambled eggs and fast succeeded--teflon magic!  Our chicken stock was soon boiling with various kinds of seafood, meats and vegetables--gindara, bangus, squid, lapu-lapu, sole, button mushrooms, abalone mushrooms, straw mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, sotanghon noodles, chap chae noodles, chicken liver, young corn, petchay.  Soon we were experimenting with various combinations of sauces and spices.  Their cooked food section was also enticing--pancit canton, siopao, hakaw, siomai, and various kinds of sushi made Gwammy and Monique quite contented!  To finish the meal, we had a choice of fruits, halo-halo and the famous Big Scoop ice cream!  Absolutely worth the price that we paid--we went home pretty much with a big smile on our faces, and by 3 pm, all of us were starting to get sleepy--super busog!