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
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
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
Other than excellent hawker foods traditionally associated with the pearl of the orient that is Penang, there are a number of excellent restaurants on the island offering a wide variety of crusines for those who favors the controlled climeate dining experience. One of my friends suggested we go to Kocha Taiwanese Delight (台湾古早味) for lunch when I was there last weekend.
nice deco, illustrated menu, and the excellent instant noodle!
The restaurant is a converted corner unit house at Jalan Burma, parking can be a bit of a problem but luckily there is parking for only RM 1.00. As the restaurant was plenty busy, we had to wait for some 10 minutes before a table is available. The decoration of the restaurant was pretty flashy but nicely done, with at least 3 sea water aquariums at the premise. My friend told me that the owner is a diver too.
I knew I was at the right place when I saw that they even sell the excellent instant taiwanese noodle (一度赞牛肉面) I blogged about a while back. For RM 6.80, that is only a little bit more than what you should pay for it in Taiwan.
does these stuff makes you hungry?
The illustrated menu is pretty extensive. With so many items to choose from, we decided to have the dumpling in beef soup (水饺牛肉汤), mini spicey pork steamboat (迷你麻辣猪肉锅), and the salty chicken rice (咸鸡饭) and some teas.
The dumpling soup and salty chicken rice were good, but I have to give my recommendation to the mini spicey pork steamboat. The steamboat is served over sterno, with plenty of ingredients such as fishball, beef ball, mushroom, tofu, and a couple types of vegetable in the spicy soup, with raw sliced pork on the side and some spicy sauce (纱茶酱)for dipping. Though I would probably prefer the soup to be slightly spicier, at the end it proved to be just nice as the burning sensation slowly builds as you eat. The pork only took half a minute to cook in the boiling soup. It was a bit too big a portion for a single person though.
was a great lunch, burp
The total was RM 47. There is a 5% government tax but there isn’t any service charge. For the quality of food served and the nice environment, this is a pretty good price. When you’re done scouring all the hawker centers, give this place a try!
the location is pretty easy to find with this map.
Address:
229 Jalan Burmah
10350 Penang
GPS: 5.424136, 100.320191
Tel: 04-227 5048
So the suan felt hungry and wanted to go to Talipon, since she don’t really care about other options, we went there. Talipon is a steamboat and grill place with the buffet concept, the typical eat all you can, but will charge you extra if you are wasteful. You get a 2 in 1 grill + steamboat set up, with a choice of clear or tomyam soup.
can you see FA & Val, or did suan take up too many pixels?
It was ages since I last went to this particular restaurant despite the close proximity, I guess the slowness of shrimp serving on the last visit played a part in that (as in, the owner took her time to top up the shrimps on the buffet line, leaving that tray empty 85% of the time). Luckily, no such problem this time, I guess they figured out that wasn’t a good business tactic.
the selection
The selection of food at Talipon isn’t too bad. You have several types of meat such chicken, beef, and mutton. There are also shrimp, flower crab, squid, and several types of shell fish on the seafood side. As with every other DIY type of buffet, there’s a huge variety of fishball taste alike items too. Then you have vege, tofu, eggs, fruits, some local kuih for dessert, and even Vanilla ice cream. Not a bad selection for around RM 18 per person, drinks not included though.
Bestnya the chilli shrimp.. yum
Now, the best thing about eating at Talipon is the chilli prawn invented by yours truely a couple years back. It goes a little like this (refer to accompanying photos above):
Updated LRT map with Rapid KL logo, bestnya!
Address:
Jalan SS 25/2,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.113305, 101.605897
