When it comes to steamboat in Malaysia, tomyam, clear soup, and porridge usually comes to mind. Most people aren’t aware that there is also the spicy Sichuan and Mongolian style steamboat in the valley. Last I had this type of steamboat was more than 1.5 years ago at Hong La Qiao and Inner Mongolian Restaurant at Pudu, so when the invitation to Jin Shan Cheng from foodstreet came in, I was rather delighted to revisit this version of steamboat.

steamboat is always best enjoyed in a group

Jin Shan Cheng is located at Sunway Mentari, across NPE from Sunway Pyramid. The restaurant itself is on first floor, but there’s actually elevator for those who are extremely lazy. Interior decoration is rather simple and without much fan fair, but this isn’t exactly a fancy restaurant, we’re here only for the food anyway.

the condiments and two types of soup

The steamboat comes with two types of soup, the traditional super spicy with lots of chili oil Sichuan style, and the other without. They are basically the same soup base though. Instead of your usual chicken rice style sambal or chili padi, there is a pretty special type of sauce accompanying the steamboat. I tasted a hint of cilantro, garlic, ginger, oil, and some type of pepper. Of course, there are also fuyu (fermented tofu), peanut sauce, and chili oil. Those usually go very well with meat items.

spicy frog legs, spicy fish pot, pepper beef

While waiting for the soup to boil, we were served three traditional Sichuan dishes. The spicy frog legs cos Eiling mentioned to the owner that she likes frog legs, the spicy fish pot, and the sizzling pepper beef.

The frog legs were actually very good, spicy yet full of flavor. The boss explained that they use a type of pepper imported from China to bring out the original taste. The fish, while very oily (wouldn’t be the correct recipe if it wasn’t), tasted pretty good too, I think it’ll go well with some rice but unfortunately we didn’t order any. Though cooked with tilapia instead of cod, it still did justice to the dish.

stop teasing with scallop already, Eiling!

For the steamboat, we had beef slice, scallop, vegetable, pork kidney, fish meat, and a few other items. My favorite had to be the kidney, closely followed by the beef. Both items tasted great with the strong flavoring from the soup and condiments. However, you need to make sure that they are not over cooked, a 5-10 second bath in the boiling soup is all you need.

Jin Shan Cheng is located at Sunway Mentari

The price at Jin Shan Cheng is pretty reasonable, the cooked dishes start from RM 15 for small portion. For example, the spicy fish pot costs RM 20 to RM 35. Not bad for something authentic an different. This place is best for those who love spicy food, you’re advised to stick with clear soup pulau ketam steamboat otherwise.

more pictures at my flickr set

Address:
No. 42A-2, Jalan PJS 8/2
Dataran Mentari, Bandar Sunway,
56301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.075284, 101.613053
Tel: 03-5631 8220
Web: www.jscmsb.com

Tags:  dinner,  fish,  hotpot,  review,  sichuan,  spicy,  Steamboat

Posted by KY | 17 Comments »

While on the way visiting my friend at Puchong, Kerol suggested that we go to this place that has excellent clay pot dishes at Seri Kembangan. The direction she gave us was “nearby South City Plaza”. Luckily we managed to find Kien Kee without much trouble.

hawker center setting, but with only 1 stall

The so called restaurant is situated at an almost hawker center like area, with the kitchen occupying one lot, and tables spread around in the middle of the square and also some unused ‘office’ rooms (with air conditioning). We quickly found a table in one of those air conditioned places and ordered 4 dishes, the spicy soup (辣汤), clay pot chicken (花雕鸡), chicken with rice wine soup (黄酒鸡), and vegetable. The first three were the must-order stuff as recommended by Kerol.

the four dishes we ordered

We had to wait for quite a long time before the food came, I guess it usually takes a bit longer to work with clay pots instead of the normal cooking methods. Then again, you get the benefit of having the food staying hot for much longer time.

The dishes were actually very good. I particularly like the clay pot chicken, very strongly flavored and goes very well with rice. The spicy soup tasted similar to pork tripe soup I had at USJ, but just a tad less spicy, ingredients include pork tripe, intestine, meat, chicken, and some unidentified innards. It was the first time I had this hakka delicacy, I had naively thought it was something similar with hot and sour soup instead. A rather nice dish I must say.

I’m not exactly a fan of chicken rice wine soup (黄酒鸡), the taste is pretty strong and with appropriate amount ingest, will probably make you blush and a bit tipsy. Kerol said it is among the best she had though.

don’t soil your shirt like this aunty.

The bill came to almost RM 80, with a lot of drinks we ordered. It isn’t exactly cheap, nor expensive. Other than the long wait, it is a pretty nice place to dine, and I have a feeling I shall go there again.

Address:
D-1, Jalan 10/3
43300 Seri Kembangan
Selangor
GPS: 3.022562, 101.705552
Tel: 012-350 9900
opens 9am to 3pm, 6pm to 9pm, close on Monday

Tags:  chicken,  chinese-food,  dinner,  klang-valley,  serdang,  seri-kembangan,  soup

Posted by KY | 14 Comments »

After the lala miso soup, my second dish for this year’s reunion dinner is Hong Kong Kailan with Roasted Pork. This is actually the first time I made this dish, though had it a few times at various restaurants, usually with Choi Tam (Brussels Sprout). I would usually have my vegetables fried only with garlic, but since this is the year of pig, why not a spice it up with some roasted pork?

this dish sure looks yummy, isn’t it?

Ingredients:

• Hong Kong kailan
• roasted pork (RM 3-5, from morning market or hawker)
• sliced or chopped garlic
• corn flour
• cooking oil
• salt

Steps:

• heat up a few spoons of cooking oil
• throw in the garlic and then roasted pork, stir
• add in the vegetabl ewhen the garlic gets golden, shoots first, then the leaves
• add some salt for flavor (half a tea spoon should suffice)
• pour in the mixture of corn flour and water (2 table spoon of corn flour and half a cup of water)
• stir till vegetable is cooked

cooking this is easy as 1-2-3

The dish was pretty easy to prepare, and it did turn out great. The aroma of roasted pork complimented the fresh vegetable really well. Corn flour and water gives a slightly salty gravy that makes eating this dish with steamed rice a very good combination. Try it!

Tags:  Cooks,  dinner,  garlic,  kailan,  roasted-pork

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »

We decided to catch dinner at the nearby Petaling Street after going on the Eye on Malaysia a couple weeks ago. Even though it was a weekday, the heart of KL is packed as usual. We ended up at Hong Kee (鸿记) clay pot chicken rice after seeing that the rat’s tail clay pot place was not operating that night.

the old school charcoal burner

Like it’s Damansara Jaya counterpart, this stall cooks the clay pot chicken rice with the old fashion charcoal fire instead of using propane gas. I’m not sure I could taste the different, but it sure make the food preparation a lot more exciting, attracting the tourists along the busy Petaling Street.

Although the place also sells Portuguese Ikan Bakar, we only ordered their signature dish, the clay pot chicken rice, and a plate of vegetable (油菜) for the night.

suanie was philosophical about her food

Our food didn’t take too long to arrive. 2 big pots of steaming clay pot chicken rice for the 5 of us. The chicken rice marinated with the appropriate sauce, topped with some shredded salted fish, sliced lap cheong (Chinese Sausage), and spring onion was as good as I’ve tasted from anywhere. The vegetable though, was just average.

fireworks

Price wise, Hong Kee is inline with the other places despite operating in the city center. The meal costs about RM 10 for each of us, a pretty decent place to visit if you’re down at Petaling Street.

Hong Kee is just right next to the Chinese bookstore by Petaling Street

GPS: 3.144651, 101.698637

Tags:  chicken-rice,  claypot,  dinner,  hawker,  petaling-street,  pudu

Posted by KY | 11 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,  hotpot,  KL,  pudu,  red-chili,  sichuan,  Steamboat,  szechuan

Posted by KY | 13 Comments »