Salt Lake City: March 2024: Day 2: Snowbird

Salt Lake City

March 2024: Day 2: Snowbird + hot pot

Salad bar at the cafeteria, aka Rendezvous Restaurant.

Snowy day.

Falling snow = good to ski on, not so good to see.

Going from the main lodge towards Gad Valley.

Who needs to see?

On a chairlift.

gad 2 lift.

Happy Lamb Hot Pot.

They're busy.

Reverse angle toward the front.

Beef aorta (artery). Not much taste, but a nice firm, not too chewy, texture.

I think this was aged prime lamb.

Best of both worlds: original marrow and spicy marrow.

Veggies, mushrooms, tofu, shrimp, fish balls. Buffet.

Buffet.

Cilantro, baby bok choy, napa cabbage.

Pumpkin, taro, winter melon, mushrooms...

Bean curd, tofu, fried tofu, udon, noodles...

Multiple kinds of fish balls, pig ear, marinated tripe, rice cakes, seaweed knots.

Squid, marinated fish, clams, tripe, shrimp, mussels.

Strawberry watermelon, peach green tea, mango green tea. Pretty sure Chris drank a gallon of these.

Taro milk tea and honeydew milk tea.

Hitting up the buffet for meat and tofu.

Back at the buffet: shrimp and mussels.

De-shelled shrimp and plain fish.

Sauce bar is ample.

Reloading on veggies.

Chris attacking the hot pot.

Beef belly.

Third (fourth?) batch of beef tongue was really good.

Lamb shoulder.

Sesame balls and fried dough.

Aka dessert. Not the best but what can you expect from a buffet?

First time skiing at Snowbird was a bit rough: snow quality was superb with freshly falling snow, but visibility was terrible because of low clouds and said snow. With zero familarity with Snowbird, was definitely a bit rough trying to learn the mountain in these conditions.

The morning tour of the mountain was great, but kept us mostly in Gad Valley, where visibility was-- don't want to say better-- but was less bad than some other areas. Mid-mountain was mostly best of a bad lot, learned a bit of history of Snowbird, and some of the quirks, like Mid-Gad lift's mid-lift unloading (quite literally!) option. Did not go through the Peruvian Tunnel at the top, nor the top itself, as the visibility was awful, and ended up mostly on far too many runs that seemed to be narrow cat tracks or equally narrow traverses.

In the end it was still a good day to be on the mountain, even if it was a sub-optimal very first day at Snowbird.

Since the whole day was cloudy, a bit snowy, and cool, randomly decided on hot pot for dinner. Turns out Happy Lamb Hot Pot has a location in Salt Lake City, and not only is it very affordable, it is most definitely legit. Chose the premium menu ($31ish) over the VIP menu ($26ish), and while the ox tongue and some of the meat upgrades were tasty and worth it, honestly the regular, more limited VIP menu is a better deal.

The real bulk of the meal comes from the buffet, with five kinds of included drinks (tea, milk teas, some other similar drinks) plus a soda fountain and a few hot food items included sesame balls, fried chicken, and fried buns for dessert. What seems to be key for their execution: a quality-enough/diverse-enough menu items at the main raw buffet and the sauce bar to make everyone happy, yet not be so overwhelming as to be too expensive to maintain. Bok choy, cilantro, napa cabbage, corn, broccoli, taro, winter melon, and a few other veggies, a few kinds of mushrooms (including black fungus), plain and marinated beef tripe, clams, mussles, shrimp, shrimp-without-shells, plain and marinated fish, several kinds of noodles, etc.

We left happy, and from how busy they were, they clearly are a hit.