stop chafing me!

one evening last week, dave and i were walking up spadina looking for ghetto foodies fodder when we came across the promisingly titled establishment, "m.y chafing dish" (it's bugging me, but i'm pretty sure there's no '.' after the 'y'). after arguing over the proper usage of the word "chafe" (to which i stand corrected), we both resolved to return to the chafin' dish when the weather would be more conducive to hot pot... as this was one of those sliiiiightly sketchy-looking basement restaurants, we felt that this would be an auspicious place to eat for our second foodies offering.

to tell you the truth, when we came back a few days later, i was a little disappointed that the place actually looked respectable in proper daylight... but hey, they can't all be winners, right? :p ever the gentleman, dave "held open" the "door", and with the gentle swishing and clattering of the beaded curtain, we were ushered into the restaurant.

i can't really say anything bad about the chafin' dish... the proprietors were nice, the drinks cold, there was no disease or death lurking around the corner, and the food was pretty decent. [even the washrooms were pretty clean - a huge improvement last wednesday's bathroom where the big heavy door to the downstairs bathrooms reminded me of the entranceway to a slaughterhouse... an image that was somewhat reinforced when i saw the stairs were literally bathed in a red glow... :S trust me, it was freaky, yo.] in general, it was a nice, slightly tackily decorated place with a random elevated VIP table at the back - why we weren't seated at that table, i still don't know... :p decor-wise, i especially liked the gold and silver gift-wrap paper they put up on the walls, though i think it would have been even more awesome if the gift-wrap had "happy birthday" or "merry christmas" printed all over it. :) [pics, dave?]

with regards to the food, it was buffet-style hotpot (like when you go for kbbq) and we decided to try a whole bunch of stuff on the menu. for stock, we tried consomme and thai stone(d) soup (which made for some pretty trippy meal-time conversation, let me tell you...) for foodstuffs, we had a whole buncha meat (lamb, chicken, beef, etc), "spinage", tofu, "waxed gourd", vermicelli, etc. etc. 'twas quite good, although we had some false starts after *somebody* kept kicking the heating element's plug out of the socket... my only complaint was that after the stock had boiled down, the owners refilled the pot with more stock instead of water... by the end of the evening, everything we cooked - EVERYTHING! - tasted like pure salt. i think we got 600% of our daily dosage of sodium in that meal... when you looked at our table afterwards, we had like 5 cans of drinks (and i would've drank more if i didn't want to spend the $$$). blech.

so after our meal, we were really, really thirsty, but i think that it was a positive experience overall... and the best part? no stomach pains! great success! :) anyhow, the food was tasty, but just remember to replenish the base with lots and lots of water (instead of stock) unless you want to end up with hypertension.