[draigenia]

Yes,...I have seen both ways of foods served. The first way is kind of awkward for a bashful, first timer, as I was, I just sat and watched as others were "fishing" with chop-sticks in the main cooking pot, for what they liked...and I felt it would be rude for me to go poking into the common pot seeking what appealed to me, so my wife was taking pity on me and was loading my plate from common pot/plates, after asking me if I like what she had "harpooned"......Second way of served foods was more in western style restaurants, like "Sizzler", where there was not so much of food "traded", and we each concentrated mostly on our own plates