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
Tel: 03-2141-8078

Tags:  dining,  eats,  food,  hong-la-qiao,  hotpot,  KL,  ky,  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
Tel: 03-2144 9688

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

Posted by KY | 3 Comments »