[Update: This out let is permanently closed.]

One of the best things that you can have on a cold, rainy day is hotpot (or steamboat as we call it here in Malaysia). What can be better than a warm bowl of nourishing soup and cooked meat to warm the stomach in chilly weather? My colleague recently went for a review at Bone & Pot Steamboat in Bandar Puteri, Puchong and had extra vouchers, so I took my family there for a nice dinner.

Bone & Pot has several outlets around the Klang Valley and have been operating since 2009. Their Cantonese name is ‘Yau Guat Hei’ –  literally translated it means ‘strength of character’ . ‘Guat’ also means ‘bone’ and ‘hei’ (breath) is often used to refer to food that has been infused with the ‘heat’ from the cooking process, thus sealing in the flavours.

Unlike conventional steamboat outlets, the place specializes in Collagen Soup. You’ve probably heard of collagen face masks and beauty products. Apparently the collagen jelly used in the broth base at Bone & Pot comes from high quality fish scales specially imported from Japan.

Collagen is said to have brightening, firming, moisturising and nourishing as well as anti-aging effects on skin, so it’s popular among the ladies. It doesn’t come cheap though – a bowl of the stuff (which needs to be ordered in advance by the way because they have limited quantities) costs RM22.

We decided to have the pork bone soup base instead (pic above). I misled you into thinking it was collagen soup, didn’t I? 😀

The bones have been boiled for eight hours, hence the milky texture.

Another thing about this restaurant is that they don’t serve in sets – all dishes are ordered individually and can rack up quite a sum. One of the notable ones was the beef balls, which were fairly large and had broth on the inside: just be careful not to scald your tongue when you’re biting into a cooked beef ball! The pork slices were not too thin or thick, perfect for cooking. We also had the standard fish balls, flying saucers (dumplings that are shaped like the aforementioned), beancurd and some noodles.

I had a whole plate of chewy pork stomach to myself. The notion of nibbling on innards might be offputting to some, but I love offal.

(Left) Deep fried egg noodle (Yee Mee) and squid slices.

Waiting for the food to cook is one of the most agonising processes of having steamboat, because the vapour and the smell just wafts tantalisingly into your face and it feels like forever before you can sink your teeth into that well-cooked, moist piece of pork.

The pork bone soup is very good, especially in the later part of the meal when it has absorbed the full flavour of all the ingredients. My brother and I drank almost half the pot by ourselves.

The price came up to RM120 for the four of us, which means that the original bill was RM170(!) which imo is very expensive for a steamboat establishment, since my usual steamboat place only charges RM30 per head for all you can eat. However, if you’d like to indulge in some good soup once in awhile, why not?

BONE AND POT

7, Jalan Puteri 2/3, Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong, Selangor