The Melting Pot

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how I should be documenting more things that I think and do in order to go back and reflect upon at a later time. I love looking at old journals from when I was little and just reading what I was thinking about or doing at the time. Even if I remember an event it is fun to read about how I was feeling and what I was experiencing emotionally at the time. 

So I want to blog more but I have no idea what to blog about. I was thinking...what is most important to me?  My God and faith, my family and well, let's me honest here....food!  So today I am blogging about food. :)

I'm not usually huge on big birthday celebrations but this being the week of my 30th birthday decided to indulge a bit. A coworker and I had been talking for a while about wanting to visit The Melting Pot, so this being my birthday week, houston restaurant weeks, AND the fact that hey emailed me a coupon for a free half dozen chocolate strawberries, we decided this was a good time to go. 

They give you a cute card and they come in this box. 

So for the restaurant weeks menu it is $35 with $5 donated to the Houston Food Bank and it comes with cheese fondue, salad, meat course and chocolate. Since we had a group of 6 we were ab,e to choose 2 cheese fondues, each chose our own salad, choose our own meat course with 2 different cooking styles and 2 chocolate fondues. 

For the cheese confuse course we chose a bacon and jalapeño one, and a spinach and artichoke. What is really neat is that the waiter "makes" the fondue at your table.  The fondues are served with veggies (broccoli, cauliflower" carrots and tomatoes), chunks of bread, and tortilla chips. To be honest I think we were all hoping the bacon and jalapeño would have a richer flavor and spice to it, but the spinach and artichoke was very good with a stronger cheese flavor. Their cheese fondues have a lot of soft cheeses in them, so if any pregnant ladies out there are wondering, they do use pasteurized cheese :).  Yes, I asked. 

I really wish I had taken a picture of the salad because it was beautiful and amazing. I ordered a strawberry caprese salad which had a spring mix of dark lettuce, large slices of tomato, slices and strawberry and beautiful large slices of mozzarella on it, served with some slivered almonds and a honey vinaigrette dressing. It was amazing. I cut my mozzarella into bite sized pieces and was able to get at least one piece with each bite of my salad and there was still some left at the end...which I ate!

For the main course they offered 2 different meat selections and 1 vegetarian. I ordered the land and sea which came with filet mignon, seasoned chicken, andouille sausage, and seasoned shrimp. 

Sorry the meat looks to dark!  They had mood lighting in the restaurant :) 

We had one pot to cook in that was a seasoned broth with some Cajun flavors to it. The other pot was a seasoned canola oil served with a tempura batter and a sesame batter. This was where the really interesting part of the meal happened, and was also where I realized that we all had color coded cooking sticks so we wouldn't get them mixed up. Kudos to them for that. They also give you mushrooms, broccoli and potatoes that you can cook with your meat and provide a number of different dipping sauces.  I liked the plum sauce. It takes anywhere from 1-4 minutes to cook your vegetables or meat per piece. I wish I had a picture option all of our prongs in the pots at the the same time. It got a little confusing at times and actually required quite a bit of thinking trying to keep track of things and how long it had been cooking. It was definitely an experience and I enjoyed trying it, but honestly I think I could do without this course at another time if I were in a large group again. Maybe it would be different if it were just a few people. 

For the best part of the meal we ordered two different chocolate fondue pots. One was a Mexican chocolate with cinnamon; the other was a yin and yang of dark and white chocolate.  Most people at our table really loved the Mexican chocolate but personally I found it to have a bit too much of a bite to it. It was the most fun to watch prepare.

The yin and yang did it for me. I was so stuffed by this point but they give you all this delectable items to dip into the chocolate.  I think the crowd favorite was the chocolate chip cookie bites.  The marshmallows plus the chocolate were a bit too rich combined.  Before it came I didn't think we would be able to eat it, but I don't think there was anything left by the end of it. No chocolate left behind!

Overall it was a great night and experience.  Personally I would probably return for cheese, salad and chocolate. The service we received was great. If you are going in the evenings, especially on the weekend, make sure you make a reservation well in advance. 

Look forward to our next adventure...