Friday, July 17, 2009

Hot Pot 火锅

This blog has been silent for a while thanks to the barricading of foreign websites due to certain civil unrest. I was in north-east China for work earlier this week, and had some pretty good food. First up to be documented is hot pot. China has a sizeable Muslim population even in the eastern and northern areas, and they have pretty good halal hot pot restaurants, identifiable by an Arabic-looking scrawl above the front entrance. We visited one called 肥牛, or FAT COW (what a yummy-sounding name!!)

The place was packed!
Lots of meat on offer, including STRIP LION.

They always give lots of starters. These garlic pieces, however, went untouched by our table.

The peanuts were nice.

Each of us had our own pots, so these places are great for going in a large group cos not everyone has to have the same soup base or food in their pot.

What's hot pot without beer!

Sesame dipping sauce, with chilli oil for those who want a spicier kick. They didn't have ma la soup, but gave us the stock cubes to add to our pots.

Beef! In the menu, this was delicately described as Fat Beef Meat.

Mutton. Not sure if this was lamb or goat.

Another plate of beef called Fu Hua Yan Rou (福华眼肉)...dunno what that meant but I'm pretty sure that's nothing to do with the eyes there.

It wasn't all meat though. This was a starter dish of bean curd strips and veggies.

We also had some interesting stuff. These are made of some vegetable (fig?), that are hard when raw, but once cooked.....

....were really smooth, and chewy! Absolute yum.

Tofu blocks (think they were dehydrated) to add to the soup to soak up the flavour, which is released upon biting into them.

Tau kee strips.
Black fungus

The entire table setting. There were 6 of us altogether...and we ordered more food after!

The sesame dipping sauce with chinese coriander and chilli oil.

The original soup base made with chicken stock....



...and after the ma la stock cube was added.

It wasn't all raw food. The preserved eggs with ginger and some vinegar/soy sauce were really tasty.

The sesame balls with red bean paste, or ma tuan were nice but too filling.
Total damage for 6 people, drinks included, was 337 RMB = approx S$12-13 per person.

We rounded up the evening with a draft Qingdao beer at the nearby pub. Easily the best meal I've had in China this year. 
K& I, if you're reading this, thanks again!

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