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2014-01-29
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Megan's Kitchen is my go-to place for hot pot. We were in Wan Chai with a visitor, on a weekday, and we just popped in around 7pm with no reservations. At first they told us we were out of luck, but as we were leaving they said they'd found something for us-- a private room one floor up.As another reviewer mentioned, at the table were 1,000 year eggs, and no they are not free. (I think they said $9 each). We decided to have one each, so the visitor could try them and so that he wouldn't be stuc
As another reviewer mentioned, at the table were 1,000 year eggs, and no they are not free. (I think they said $9 each). We decided to have one each, so the visitor could try them and so that he wouldn't be stuck by himself eating it. I thought these were worse than usual-- quite gummy and foul tasting. Of course, I don't know what counts as 'good' for these things. Rating: ???
For dipping sauce I go pretty simple: some garlic, some spring onion, and lots of chilis. This stuff is mostly superfluous, because they hot pot broth has enough flavor. Still... difficult to resist a pile of chilis.
My favorite hot pot item is the fried tofu. Fried, because it holds up to the cooking, and because it's got lots of internal air pockets perfect for sucking up broth.
Rainbow cuttlefish balls are a must. What makes them rainbow? I don't know. Once cooked up, these are a very nice texture, very good flavor, not too fishy. The texture is a big thing with me, as I'm not a very big X-ball person unless the balls have good texture-- they aren't rubbery or mushy or spongy or whatever.
I like kimchi and I like dumplings, so there you go. Cooked kimchi is never as good as the cold raw stuff, but I will say that these work nicely and I'm always keen to get them.
This time we tried something really new: cheesy beef tongue dumplings. They were surprisingly good. Definitely gooey, and made more complex by the hot pot broths we got.
Lotus root, I find, is great for hot pots in that it's firm and crunchy and won't get too soggy in the broth.
There's an assorted vegetable platter for $98. It doesn't say on the menu what you get, but we got corn, cabbage, two kinds of mushrooms (enoki and cremini), and some greens. I'm not a big vegetable-in-my-hotpot kinda person, but hey, they're good for you.
We got three plates of meat: lamb, fatty beef, and pork. There's nothing really special to report here. I liked them all, and they were attractively presented.It's difficult to rate hot pots; how the food turns out is highly dependent on you-- which broth you pick, what you pick to put in it, how you fancy up your soy sauce, and how you cook your food. For me, fried tofu, cuttlefish balls, and dumplings in the Sichuan broth is exactly what I'm looking for. What I like about Megan's is the range, variety, and quality of the things on the menu. There's enough new fusion things and enough staples that you can have a fun and satisfying meal every time.
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