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2011-01-20
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I had written a review on the lunch here, and although it fare too well, I decided to give the hotpot dinner a try to let the restaurant redeem itself in my heart.We ordered 2 yin yang broths, both with a ma la broth, and the other halves were a coriander and thousand year egg table broth and a mushroom broth, which was good for 11 people. The metal basins holding the broth were pretty massive, which allowed to throw in lots of ingredients at the same time. The pestle and mortar for grinding you
We ordered 2 yin yang broths, both with a ma la broth, and the other halves were a coriander and thousand year egg table broth and a mushroom broth, which was good for 11 people. The metal basins holding the broth were pretty massive, which allowed to throw in lots of ingredients at the same time.
The pestle and mortar for grinding your own sesame before adding your own concoction of spices and sauce was also a lot of fun.
Mine looked like this
We ordered a LOT of vegetables and mushrooms, chiu chow fish balls, mushroom and pork balls, fish skin dumplings, shui jiao (dumplings), dace paste (for westerners unaccustomed to this practice, it's a thick doughy paste of minced fish meat - usually dace - which you spoon bit by bit into the broth and let it cook into funny shapes), about 6 plates of Oz wagyu beef (tender, well marbled beef and not too fat, a steal at $108), shavings of leg of lamb, and black pork (kurobuta).
Everything that went into the ma la hotpot came out looking like this
A couple of friends were caught unaware of the hidden landmines of peppercorns and choked, spluttered and gasped their way through dinner. There was plenty of beer and icy cold soft drinks (the bottled kind somehow still tastes better) to lower the heat.We also ordered a starter of cucumbers, 2 servings of spring beans which my bf loves, half a saliva chicken (tender, juicy, succulent), and to round off the meal, 3 bowls of dan dan mian (the texture of the noodle was lovely, though the flavour was overwhelmed by the desensitisation of our taste buds from the mala broth).
Service was a little better, though some of the waiters seem to be in a daze and needed simple, short instructions repeated several times before they caught on. But they got the job done, gas canisters were changed promptly, tea was refilled, orders generally came as requested without much fuss. The manager also tend to look away just when your hands goes up in the air, though perhaps it's not entirely his fault for not noticing us non-celeb/non-regular people sitting at the corner. Overall, a much happier meal with a full stomach and the feeling of ants crawling over my lips and tongue. I love Sichuan food!
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