Hey Hey Hotpot: HongKong style Steamboat

Wintermelon Soup Base

I hated steamboats when I was a kid. As a child, I preferred food that were fried, grilled and deep fried over those that were steamed or boiled. Somehow eating a piece of boiled chicken didn't quite appeal to me as much as eating fried chicken.

I guess tastes change as one gets older. I wonder sometimes if somehow God had created us that way. I mean, in the good old days people used to lose all their teeth when they got older so that they couldn't chew on meats and had to eat tofu and other soft and mushy vegetables. When you are old, not eating too much meat is good for you wheras when you are a kid growing up, you actually do need to eat meat in order to build up muscle. So maybe as we grow older, we are programmed to like foods that is better for us. Maybe that is why I am beginning to prefer steamed and boiled stuff over greasy fried stuff. Maybe its just me or are you all observing the same thing?

Anyways, back to steamboats. When I was younger, the steamboat always meant raw meats dipped into a rather plain chicken stock and eaten with a chilli sauce. I always found that a bit boring. However, of late, stalls are getting more creative with the soup bases. So we have the likes of "Mala" steamboats as well as porridge and laksa steamboats. This particular steamboat appealed to me not only because they emphasize on the quality of the soup base, but they also have a variety of different "dim sum" that you can cook in the soup.

I particularly liked the Winter Melon soup which is a favourite amongst Hong Kongers. It takes quite a bit of effort to cook this soup which is why this is one steamboat which you actually have to pay for the soup. (The top up for the winter melon soup is$10 per pot. Other soup bases start from $5). Aside from the Winter Melon soup they also have Shark Bone and Herbal Chicken soup which are all very "Hong Kong".


Crab Roe wrapped with Fish paste $5.80 (not part of buffet menu)

Some of the specially imported "dim sum" that caught our attention are the Crab Roe wrapped in Fish paste dumpling shown above which combines savoury crab roe with an out covering of fish paste. Or I guess you could think of it as a fish ball with crab roe filling. 4/5


Char Siew Pau Dumplings $4.80

What I ended up eating quite a few off that night was this "Char Siew Pau" which is char siew filling wrapped in "Crystal" skin (ala Crystal Dumpling).



I have never boiled a char siew pau before so it was a pretty wierd notion at first but after the first bite, I was quite hooked. I think I ended up eating around ten of these that night. (they are around the size of a 50 cent coin) 4.5/5 I think the texture of the sticky chewy skin with the fragrant char siew filling was pretty novel and addictive.



The other dim sum that I really like is the Cheese filled Fish Paste dumpling. Might sound a bit wierd but the chewy, melted mozarella cheese goes quite well with the fish paste and chilli. 4.25/5


Sliced Angus Beef (Australian) $16.80 (normal price $21.80)

Beef lovers will rejoice at their "Fei Niu" (lit fat cow) which uses Australian Angus. They were having a promotion at that time and a plate costs $16.80. 4/5

Conclusion

I like the uniqueness of this Hong Kong style steamboat. The soups are very good quality and you get to try stuff very different from the usual steamboats. Pricewise, they have lunch buffet starting from $18++ and dinner starting from $27++, which is a tad more expensive than the ones you find at beach road but certainly something to try if you are looking for a good quality steamboat with good soup bases and novelty "Dim Sum".

Hey Hey Hotpot Restaurant
1 Selegie Road,
#B1-20, Paradiz Centre
S188307
11.30am to 2.30pm
Dinner 6.30pm to 11pm
63335166
Lunch Buffet $18++
Dinner Buffet Mon-Thur $27++
Fri-Sun $29++
Top Up for soups starting from $5 per pot

Carnivore: The Anti-Vegetarian Buffet

Butterfish Sir?

I know a lot of Vegetarians do go for buffets (where there is a nice salad bar), but I wonder if a Vegetarian would actually go to a restaurant called Carnivore where the main attraction is "all-you-can-eat" meats that are carved right on your table? Even if they do, wouldn't the sight of so much celebration of meat be a turn off for those who choose to be Vegetarians for the love of animals?

Anyway, when the Channel 8 producers asked me to recommend a buffet to film for their upcoming Channel 8 series, I picked Carnivore as the more interesting choice. I seldom go for buffets nowadays because Calories are precious and rather than going for quantity, I prefer to go for quality. So for me, I'd rather spend my money and calories on a nice steak rather than on a buffet. However, Carnivore was a bit more than your run-of-the-mill buffet, I thought it would be a bit of a fun dining experience for the family.


Beef Hump (This guy quite drama!)

Carnivore does have a ring of authenticity about it. For one, their passadours (the guys cutting the meat) are really from Brazil, and they also have stuff like Beef Hump which you is a cut of meat that is common in Brazil but not found in our usual Aust or American beef. The Beef Hump is found in the Zebu breed of cattle which the Brazilians rear but not on the Angus which is the common breed in America/Aust. It is essentially a hump of muscle just behind the neck of the cattle.


Sliced Beef Hump

This is the first time I am trying beef hump and I must say that it is quite nice. You can see from the picture that the meat is quite fat and it has been roasted over a slow fire for 6 hours. So you can imagine how juicy and melt-in-your-mouth the meat is. It has got a little of that "Corned Beef" kind of taste. 4/5



The other meat that I was quite impressed with was the Butterfish which was smooth and buttery without any hint of fishiness. 4/5

Having so much meat is a tad heavy, so the roasted pineapples was a nice interlude between meats. You must admit that the sight of wonderfully charred and caramelized pineapple can be quite inviting even if you consider yourself a staunch carnivore!

Conclusion

Personally, I would rather have a nice steak rather than all-you-can-eat meat. However, I can see how this place can appeal to a platoon of national servicemen who have just been eating combat rations for 2 weeks. I must say however that the beef hump was interesting enough if you have not had this cut of meat before and it would be an interesting family outing if they have never been to this type of restaurant before.

Postscript:

Carnivore will be featured in the first episode of Buffet Buffet which will be aired on 2 Oct, Channel 8 at 8pm. I really hope that they will do a good job editing my spoken Mandarin which many have already said was "CMI" (Cannot make it) the last time.

Carnivore VivoCity

1 Harbour Front Walk,

#01-161/162,

S 098585

63769939
Lunch $28++ Weekend $32++
Happy Hour (5.30pm-6.30pm) $36 Weekend $39++
Dinner $42++ Weekend $45++

www.carnivore.com.sg

Fortune Cuisine: Steamboat and Charcoal BBQ Buffet

Please make sure you read the comments before going!

With SCS Butter, Happi Mummi and ieatFamily


Singaporeans are always on the lookout for a great bargain. And the best way to gauge if a something is a great bargain when it comes to food is when you leave the restaurant thinking: "How the heck do they actually make money from this?"

This is exactly the kind of feeling I got when I ate at Fortune Cuisine. As a Steamboat Buffet, it offered not just the usual steamboat stuff, but also adds a Japanese twist to it by offering a Yakiniku Style Charcoal BBQ as well as Sushi, Sashimi and Cold noodles. Of course you still get your usual cooked dishes like fried rice, sweet and sour pork, fried chicken and other cooked food items. Free Flow drinks, coffee and tea and quite a varied spread of various cakes and ice-creams for dessert.



But of course the astute, kiasu Singaporean Bargain hunter would immediately wonder what is the fuss all about? Sounds like any other buffet steamboat with maybe some sushi at the side. Well, I will tell you why we all felt it was a good bargain. Compared to many other steamboat/bbq buffets, the meats here are pretty good quality. One of the items that I was very pleasantly surprised to see was the free flow Beef Karubi! These are chilled Australian beef short ribs and they are well marbled and actually quite good! Now for that alone, I think it's worth the $22.80++. 4.5/5



Although the highlight for me was the Charcoal BBQ, steamboat lovers won't be disappointed as well. They have three different soup base here, Mala, Chicken and Seafood and they were all pretty good. The seafood selection comes with good medium sized prawns, flower crabs and sliced salmon. The rest of the spread is all the standard stuff that you can expect at a steamboat buffet.

For the desserts, there was a decent spread of cakes and ice-cream plus coffee and tea. I was again pleasantly surprised that instead of a big pot of tea with 2 "Lipton" teabags in it, they actually gave you a selection of "gourmet" Dilmah Tea Bags. You know, the type that you pick out in a fancy Cafe and have to fork out $3.50 for? Pretty good for an "All you can eat" place don't you think?

Conclusion

Now I hope you can understand why we all left the place wondering "How they can make money out of this?"

Update: 29 Nov 2007
Just got confirmation from the owner Desmond that there was a price revision after my dinner there. On weekends the price has gone up to $27.80++. Since there were so many complaints, he has agreed to extend the price of $22.80++ for ieatishootipost readers if you call up to reserve your seats. The offer will be up till 14 Dec 2007.

As to the replenishment of food, the Saturday following the blog post was exceptionally busy, so they had problems replenishing the food. Although they are working at a solution to the problem, my advice is that if you want the good stuff, make sure you go early.

Fortune Cuisine
Blk 106 Clementi St 12
#01-38A/B
67778622
Lunch $16.80++, Child $11.80++
Dinner $22.80++, Child $15.80++
Disclaimer: SCS Butter arranged for this invited Review