We’ve been hearing about this porridge based steamboat (粥底火锅) for a while now. We decided to give it a try after having always had the more traditional type of steamboat or shabu shabu, usually either with clear or tomyam soup, just to see what the craze is about. The place we ransacked was Restaurant Farmland Steamboat at Jalan Pudu.
a pretty busy place
It was a weekend and the restaurant was very busy. After securing our table, we ordered the 3 “set dinner”, some sliced beef, spam, and an extra order of vege. The set came with a prawn, an egg, various types of fishball look-alike and taste-alike stuff, and some veges.
The porridge that made the base can hardly be categorised as porridge. The viscosity is very very low for obvious reason, you wouldn’t want it to stick on the pot. Besides, it wouldn’t be a very good medium to cook anything if the porridge was too thick.
sliced beef, yummm
The major difference in porridge based steamboat and the other types was the distinct lack of taste in the plain porridge base. This, however, is excellent if you have very good raw ingredients, like pomphret fish, crabs, or fresh prawns; the plain base would not obscure the natural taste and sweetness of the ingredients like how a tomyam soup would. However, since we were ordered cheapskate food, the porridge steamboat wasn’t something to shout about, though it wasn’t bad at all.
add some sesame oil and soya sauce, best.
The meal costs us about RM 15-20 a per person. Give it a try if you want to have something different. I suggest you stay away from the “set dinner” if you are not really into eating half a dozen types of fishball taste-alike items.
loving the map?
The restaurant is situated by the busy Jalan Pudu. If you drive on Jalan Pudu towards Cheras area from the Jalan Imbi junction, the restaurant is just before the first gas station on your left. Beware that the parking situation isn’t very great..
Address:
362 366, Jalan Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.138293, 101.710079
Tel: 03-2141 9297
