As my house mate the Sotong had to wait for over an hour before the movie Rough Assassin starts (a very forgettable movie, lucky we didn’t have to pay for it), we decided to have dinner around the area. Although there are a host of restaurants at the Curve, Cinneleisure, and Ikano, I always struggle to find something that is affordable and decent there. We finally decided to try the curious Ketam Village Steamboat restaurant at the basement of Ikano Power Centre.

the Sotong was enjoying her meal

The menu is packed with photos of every item, this make selection pretty easy as what you see is what you get. Unlike the more traditional steamboat places, this restaurant supplies every customer with their own pot, similar to Mizi Shabu Shabu in Puchong. Individual steamboat set priced from just less than RM 10 and above, pretty reasonable I think.

the combination set and the interesting chili padi, spring onion, and fried shallot condiment

My house mate ordered a combination set with a side order of cuttle fish, while I had a sliced lamb noodle set with extra crab stick. Both of us went for clear soup, like many steamboat places these days, tomyam soup is available too.

I usually don’t expect too much from restaurants like this, but the soup actually tasted pretty decent, and the ingredients quite fresh. Furthermore, the chili paste was really good, and to top it all, there is this chili padi + spring onion + fried shallots + sesame seeds condiment that proved to be rather addictive. It turned out to be a very decent meal.

I made quick work of whatever that was served

The bill came to RM 37+ for the two of us, combination set was RM 15.80 and the sliced lamb noodle was RM 9.80. There is a 5% tax.

GPS: 3.156478, 101.611927

p/s: I do not suggest that you should go to Cold Storage to buy some extra ingredients into that restaurant.

Tags:  damansara,  ikano,  ikea,  kerol,  power-center,  Steamboat

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

Last weekend a few of us decided to have some spicy food and went to this Hong La Qiao (红辣椒 - literally Red Chili) at the heart of KL for their unique Szechuan steamboat. Knowing that the place is usually packed during weekends, we called ahead to book for a table. Do note that it is advisable to get someone who can speak in Mandarin to make the booking, since the receptionist doesn’t really speak in English.

*slurps*

The restaurant, situated just right behind Berjaya Times Square, serves rice dishes as well as steamboat. We ordered the “ying yang” steamboat with the spicy Szechuan soup as well as the clear soup, and a bunch of steamboat dishes to chuck in there. There were fishball with meat stuffing, dumplings, beef, fish maw, dried pork skin, tofu, crab stick, fish fillet, a few types of vegetables, mushroom, sea cucumber, and more.. all in all more than 10 dishes.

the spicy szechuan and the clear soup

The other must-order item at this restaurant is their unique cold cucumber dish. Basically cucumber sliced to bite size sticks, covered with oil, salt, seasonings, and very finely chopped garlic. The ingredients might look simple and even odd, but it proved to be a very refreshing and interesting “snack”. We eventually ordered 2 plates for the 4 of us. The other non-steamboat item we ordered was the gyoza, though pretty decent, it wasn’t as good as the one served up at Crystal Jade.

the interesting pickled tofu sauce with crab stick

The steamboat though, was rather nice… if you are one of those guys who enjoy spicy food. The spicy Szechuan soup tasted very hot and even numbing. The top layer of red oil was especially powerful in attacking the heat receptor. However, cooking fish and meat in the hot soup, and then dipping them in their unique picked tofu (腐乳) or fermented bean paste sauce proved very addictive.

Hong La Qiao is just behind Berjaya Time Square

The taste was pretty unique and rather good, though a little on the spicy side, a great place for that exotic yet very Chinese food. Since we ordered up a boat load of food, it came to about RM 40 for each of us, but a normal serving of steamboat should be around RM 30.

Address:
No. 53,55, Jalan Cangkat Thambi Dollah,
Off Jalan Pudu, 55100, KL
GPS: 3.140666, 101.710321
Tel: 03-2141-8078

Tags:  dinner,  hong-la-qiao,  hotpot,  KL,  pudu,  red-chili,  sichuan,  Steamboat,  szechuan

Posted by KY | 11 Comments »

Our dear friend Margie suggested that we head out to the Inner Mongolia Restaurant for a session of Mongolian Steamboat as a farewell dinner before her departure to some strange place in strange land in pursuit of higher education. About 10 of us readily agreed and headed there. This was a couple of weeks ago, but somehow Margie is still in the country, we might just have another “farewell” dinner..

The herbal and spicy soup in ying yang pattern

The restaurant is famous for its unique Mongolian steamboat, but offers other cooked dishes too. Of course, we ordered as many different dishes as possible.

The steamboat soup is served in a ying yang pattern, with the herbal soup on one side, and the super spicy soup on the other. The spicy soup has a pretty thick layer of spicy oil on top. Both types supposedly share the same soup base.

steamboat items: prawn, mushroom, squid, frozen tofu, fish…

We started out with a cold dish of some sort of ham that went well with the sauce and proved to be a good choice for appetizer while waiting for the soup to boil. A couple big plates of excellent pork belly (Dongo Pork) and roast lamb chop kept us busy at the same time. The pork was just fatty enough, when having it with the fresh lettuce, the contrasting taste and texture was fantastic. The lamb chop too was not disappointing at all.

other dishes: lamb, pork belly, ham, fried rice

As for the steamboat, we ordered four big plates of thin sliced pork and beef, some shrimp, squid, mushroom, vegetables, quail’s eggs, tofu, and a few uniquely Mongolian stuff that are probably made of mostly flour. I personally can’t get enough of the hot soup, with the underlying herbal taste and the strength of the spicy oil, it gives a very good flavor to the food cooked in it. The clear soup was very good too, especially for those who prefer their food less oily, or those who can’t take hot food.

Instead of sambal or Thai chili with soya sauce, each person is given a special dipping sauce that tastes like fermented peanut. Pretty weird description on my part, but it didn’t taste odd, but rather quite fitting with the overall taste of the food.

the raw beef and pork, a must. century eggs as dessert

We ended dinner with the century egg as dessert. Overall damage was slightly over RM 300, around RM 30 per pax. I would consider that a pretty decent value for the experience, the amount, and the excellent taste of the dishes. The only thing we didn’t finish was Terence’s Mongolian milk tea, which tasted like tea with yogurt, just weird.

Map to Inner Mongolia Restaurant at Pudu

Other Reviews: masak-masak, eatinout

Address:
290 Ground Floor,
Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.139589, 101.709961
Tel: 03-2144 9688

Tags:  hotpot,  inner-mongolia,  mongolian,  pudu,  Steamboat

Posted by KY | 3 Comments »

Itchy for steamboat again, the gang and I decided to try the “original” pulau ketam steamboat at SS15, Subang Jaya. The name of the restaurant is Bee Ho (美好海鲜火锅之家). This is of course, the same style as offered at the Patrick Teoh’s Damansara Village steamboat.

the chili paste is awesome!

Unlike the grand set up at uncle Teoh’s outlet, Bee Ho is just a big old school kopitiam. Meaning the tables near the sidewalk are much preferred as those situated deeper in the restaurant can be a little hot and humid with all the steamboat boiling on every table.

the steamboat, the crab meehun, and the two noobs.

For the 8 of us, we ordered 5 portion of standard steamboat meal, a plate of fish fillet (actually wanted to have the fish cubes but they ran out), string mushroom, extra meat roll, dumplings, and a big plate of absolutely must-order crab meehun.

The joy of having steamboat with plenty of people is that you have more choices ordering the side orders and not have to only settle for the standard steamboat meal.

the sloppy diner!

We boiled the soup with plenty of ingredients at least 4-5 times over. The ingredients were fresh and pretty good, the soup with good herbal taste, and the chili paste was really awesome. I think I had at least 3 small plates of those spicy stuff. Above all, the crab meehun was really something special, the aroma of crab soaked into the meehun, making it tastes unique of the crustacean’s sweetness, this is something that everyone MUST TRY at Bee Ho.

Bee Ho steamboat is at SS15, near the college areas.

The dinner only came to RM 17.50 per person that night. We had Chinese tea as drinks.

Address:
Bee Ho Steamboat Restaurant
no. 52 Ground Floor,
Jalan SS15/4C
Subang Jaya 47500
Selangor
GPS: 3.076773, 101.587862
Tel: 012-250 7717

Tags:  crab,  gareth,  hot-pot,  kim,  prawn,  pulau-ketam,  seafood,  ss15,  Steamboat,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 6 Comments »

Steamboat is best enjoyed with a group of friends, so I gathered the usual suspects last weekend and eight of us went to the relatively new Damansara Village Steamboat opposite ProJET gas station near Atria at Damansara Jaya.

very nice set up and excellent ambiance

This place is more than just a simple restaurant, there’s a little pool for kids to catch guppies (longkang fish) from, some furry animals, Iguana, and a giant tortoise on one side, a miniature vegetable farm, and even a guy twisting balloons for free. At least this local restaurant is catching up to McDonald’s concept of making the kids happy first.

As for the restaurant itself, there are indoor and outdoor areas, with everything set up in an open concept. No need for air conditioning when you have high ceiling, no wall, and plenty of fans. The tables are not arranged too close together either, very spacious and comfortable.

the standard steamboat set

For the eight of us, we ordered five portion of the standard steamboat set (assorted fish balls, prawns, mussels, eggs, bamboo clams, noodle, and vegetables). To complete the meal and add some variety, we also asked for 300gm of live tiger prawn (still jumping on the plates!), straw mushroom, 1kg of giant clam, and a pretty good size batfish that looks and tastes pretty much like pomphret.

the extras: tiger prawns, clams, fish, straw mushroom

As this is a Pulau Ketam style steamboat, we go for the traditional clear soup with some herbal ingredients. The sambal provided at this place was pretty good too.

We started out boiling the soup with some seafood, fish balls, and noodle for the first round. Finished everything in less than a few minutes; and proceed with the second round of giant clams and others; then it was the fish; and after that the live prawns; with the final round of more noodles and egg. The soup got better and better as the essence of seafood ingredients got sucked into it. It was a very fulfilling meal, fresh ingredients with very good soup. The food went well with the fresh coconut juice and a bottle of toddy we ordered.

the happy diners

The dinner came to slightly less than RM 30 per person. I would consider that a very good value for the ambiance and great food we had. A place worth visiting again.

less than 2 kilometers from Kelana Jaya LRT station

Address:
1067, Jalan Jenjarum
SS23 Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.124233, 101.612672
Tel: 03-7803 1832

By the way, if you haven’t know already, the big boss is Patrick Teoh.

Tags:  clam,  damansara,  fish-ball,  hot-pot,  prawn,  pulau-ketam,  Steamboat

Posted by KY | 23 Comments »