hotpot – Page 2 – Eris Goes To

Food Review: Chiang Mai Mookata & Thai Street Food@ Skypod Square Puchong

August 2, 2017April 14, 2021Posted in FoodTagged barbecue, bbq, Chiang Mai Mookata, dining, eating, Featured, food review, hotpot, Malaysia, mookata, Puchong, restaurant review, steamboat, ThaiLeave a comment

UPDATE: This outlet is permanently closed.

Moo-kata, or Thai style barbecue, is all the rage these days: judging by the increasing number of outlets popping up in and around the Klang Valley. What I like about it is that you can barbecue AND boil your food on the unique stove at the same time! My first experience with it was in Phuket in 2015. I. Was. Hooked. Even today, I can still recall the taste and experience (read on my Phuket Mookata experience: here)

Local foodshow HoChak recently featured this place in Puchong called Chiang Mai Mookata & Thai Street Food, so the fam and I went to try it last weekend. We expected it to be crowded since that’s usually how it is after a foodshow introduces a resto, but it was relatively quiet during our visit. SkyPod/IOI Business Park itself is usually deserted anyway lel.

Moo and Pops decided to skip on the Mookata (??? why?) and opted to have single portions of green curry chicken and braised pork with rice. The bro and I shared a set, which is good for two.

Sorry I don’t have better pictures – we sat outdoors (which was dark) because the ventilation inside wasn’t so good. The platter consisted of thin slices of marinated pork and chicken, sizable shrimps, pork balls and fake crab meat sticks and bacon, as well as veggies, vermicelli and an egg. The meat tasted decent after grilling, albeit a little salty/peppery. Thick chunks of lard (the white stuff on the plate) are used to oil the grill.

I’d recommend adding on the bacon wrapped enoki mushroom 🙂

Washed everything down with a glass of Thai milk tea.

The food was decent but it took forever to cook because the burner was really small and it was windy outside. But then again, meals like these are best enjoyed at a slow pace.

Damage for two rice meals + the mookata set + drinks = RM100.

CHIANG MAI MOOKATA PUCHONG

G-13, Skypod Square, Persiaran Puchong Jaya Selatan, Bandar Puchong Jaya, 47100 Puchong, Selangor.

Opening hours: 11AM – 11PM (Daily)

Phone: +60386014505

facebook.com/pg/chiangmaimookataa

Steamboat Buffet Below RM40 in KL @ Shasa Shabu Restaurant, Cheras

July 19, 2017Posted in FoodTagged Asian, buffet, eating, Featured, food, hotpot, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Shabu Shabu, Shasa Shabu, steamboatLeave a comment

It’s been awhile since our last Powerpuff Girls meetup (my ex-colleagues and I called ourselves that, haha!), and since it was inconvenient for H to drive, P and I braved an hour of horrendous Saturday night traffic (why don’t you stay at home, other people!?) to Shasa Shabu Restaurant, all the way in Cheras – which, according to H, serves pretty decent steamboat buffet fare at an affordable price.

We arrived at 8pm and the place was quite packed, but we got seats immediately. By then my stomach was growling so I didn’t manage to take too many photos. Here’s how the shop looks like though:

The way food is served is similar to a kaiten sushi concept, except with steamboat ingredients rather than sushi. Food is constantly replenished. There’s a counter on the side for meat (chicken, pork, beef and lamb – they ran out of lamb that night though), and the rest you can get from the conveyor belt. There are many different kinds of balls (ha!) like fishballs, pork balls, crab and squid balls, fish slices, squid, whole pieces of bawal, mushroom platters, fried beancurd, and more.

They had a little corner with fried items. The fried chicken wings were delicious (or maybe I was just too hungry!) – Crispy and crunchy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside without being overly greasy. Polished off a few before I actually got down to the steamboat. They also have basic sushi rolls like tuna, salmon, egg, crab meat, etc.

Patrons can choose to have a choice of miso, chicken or tomyam soup (above). I had the chicken. Honestly, the soup was quite bland for me but then again, the items were all quite salty so it was balanced out.

Meat was fresh enough. I liked the pork which had a good balance of meat and fat, and since they were sliced thinly, cooked really quickly.

End the meal on a sweet note with some dessert! Aside from fresh fruits, they also have ice-cream in six flavours. All in all I felt it was a value for money meal. It’s hard to find a price point like this for a steamboat buffet in KL these days!

More photos / info on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/shasashabu.my/

PS: they have two outlets, one in Kuchai Lama and the other in Pandan Indah, Cheras.

SHASA SHABU BUFFET

16 & 17, Jalan Perubatan 2, Pandan Indah, 55100, Kuala Lumpur.

55100 Ampang, Kuala Lumpur

Phone: 03-4288 4883

Sukiyaki @ Sushi Zanmai, IOI Mall Puchong (Revisited)

March 26, 2017March 19, 2017Posted in Diary, FoodTagged Featured, friends, friendship, hotpot, IOI Mall Puchong, Japanese, Malaysia, Puchong, sukiyaki, sushi, Sushi ZanmaiLeave a comment

A breather from updating about Taiwan! Got a call from C over the weekend while I was still recuperating from staying up late gaming:

C: Ey woman, can help me paint my house?

Me: What?

C: Paint my house.

Me: Okay sure.

I find it rather funny that other girls usually ask their girlfriends to go out shopping on a weekend. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. 😀

C came to pick me up and we had a quick breakfast at a food court nearby. Dish of the day: curry chee cheong fun, ie flat rice noodles swimming in a spicy broth and topped with various fried/boiled items such as fishball, meatball, pig’s skin and fried beancurd.

Got to the apartment, which she rents out. She was planning to rent it out to a new set of tenants so we had to clean up the mess left behind by the previous ones – dirty walls with handprints, double sided sticky tape, nails, etc. My ‘job’ was to help repaint the rooms with a nice fresh coat of white. Sounds easier than it looks, but it was a good workout! Took us a few hours, the prospective tenants came to have a look; then we sat around watching some Chinese DVD on the TV. By then it was already 6pm so we went to hunt for food.

Ended up going for Japanese at Sushi Zanmai in IOI Mall, Puchong. This is my second visit here, and like before, business seemed to be booming, with a queue of patrons waiting to be seated. We got seats fairly quick. C ordered garlic fried rice, which was fragrant but rather tasteless. Like many Malaysians, she peppered it with a mad amount of wasabi lol.

I was in the mood for some cold noodles; so went for the tempura soba. A popular summer dish, these buckwheat noodles are bouncy with an al-dente texture, usually served with a small bowl of soy sauce broth.

This is how you eat it: pour in the spring onion/shredded daikon into your soysauce-y broth, grab some noodles, dunk them in, and slurp them from the bowl. Apparently you are also supposed to slurp all of the strands in one go, and make a loud noise while you’re at it. It’s ‘polite’. 😀 Culture is a strange (and fascinating) thing.

Crispy tempura. The eggplant, long beans and shrimp were not too oily and had sealed its juices on the inside.

For the finale, we had a Sukiyaki (hotpot) to share. The sweet broth was loaded with vegetables, mushrooms and tofu. We waited for it to boil before adding in the thin slices of beef.

Fresh egg is whipped and used for ‘dipping’. Some might find the idea of eating raw egg with cooked meat weird, but trust me, it’s awesome. The egg gives it a silky smooth texture, and also helps in ‘cooling’ down the piping hot meat.

The meat was just the right thickness to cook quickly, and was well marinated: flavourful, juicy and tender on its own. Possibly one of the better hotpots out there. Although, for someone used to free flow, the few pieces of beef weren’t enough 😛

SUSHI ZANMAI

G18A, IOI Mall,
Batu 9 Jalan Puchong,
Bandar Puchong Jaya,
47170 Puchong, Selangor.

Business hours: 10am – 10pm (daily)

Previous blog post: Here

BibiWok Thai Steamboat/Grill, Bandar Puteri Puchong

August 8, 2016January 5, 2017Posted in FoodTagged BibiWok, dining, eating, food, grill, hotpot, mookata, Puchong, restaurant review, steamboat, Thai4 Comments

UPDATE: This place is now closed D: *cries*

I can’t believe I’ve lived in Puchong my whole life and never got down to eating at BibiWok Thai Steamboat/Grill in Bandar Puteri, Puchong. My mum ate at their resto downstairs (which serves Thai cuisine) and didn’t like the food, so I always had the impression that their stuff wasn’t up to par. Goes to show that you shouldn’t believe everything you hear…

The ex-colleagues and I had dinner here recently and boy, was I blown away. This is easily the best, most value for money hotpot/grill place you can get around Puchong.

Thai steamboat/grill is called Mookata. Ever since H brought me to try one while we were holidaying in Phuket, I’ve been hooked – but it’s not very common in Malaysia. I love the concept, since you can choose to boil or grill your food, or both !

BibiWok’s restaurant is divided into two sections. Downstairs, they serve typical Thai dishes like Basil Chicken, Tom Yum Goong, and Pad Thai. The mookata is upstairs, and you enter through a rather dingy-looking staircase at the side. They should put more signs, coz if I was a first-time customer, I wouldn’t know there was such a gem of a place on the second floor.

7pm on a Friday night, and we had the whole place to ourselves. Guests can choose to sit at the regular table, or in these niches with a space for you to put your legs.

The menu features a wide selection of veggies, meat and seafood. You write down the order on a piece of paper, and they’ll bring it out on a plate lined with banana leaves. For our first ’round’, we ordered scallops, fish slices, lamb, smoked duck slices, squid, chicken, shrimp, seafood tofu, fishballs, beef balls, and fried beancurd. What can I say – everything was fresh and tasty.

The grill was also lined with banana leaves, so it really gave this smokey, fragrant flavour to the items.

My favourite was the smoked duck, which was cut not too thick or thin. After grilling, the fat just melted in the mouth along with the tender, salted meat. The lamb was another winner – juicy, well-marinated; as was the bouncy squid and succulent chicken meat. I think what made everything so good was the fact that the stuff was fresh.

Our tomyum soup base became really salty after adding a lot of ingredients. 😛

We actually ordered TWO more plates similar to the one I took a picture of above. The waiters were looking at us like O-O “what is wrong with these three women?”. At the end of the meal, we finished off with fruits and chocolate/vanilla ice-cream. The buffet is also inclusive of drinks such as green tea, water and cincau.

What we liked about it, apart from the food, is that they serve everything right up to your table.

The buffet is priced at RM38++ per pax. For the variety and freshness, this is a steal.

Restoran BibiWok

1, Jalan Puteri 10/16, Bandar Puteri,

47100 Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia

Phone: 03 8068 6284

Business hours: 5.30pm – 11.00pm

Stone Steampot, Bandar Puteri Puchong

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016Posted in FoodTagged Asian, Bandar Puteri Puchong, dining, eating, food, hotpot, Malaysia, Puchong, Stone Steam Pot1 Comment

There are two kinds of restaurants that you’ll find at every corner in the Klang Valley. Japanese, and hotpots – or as we call them here, steam boat. One of these places, serving hotpot with a twist, is Stone Steampot in Bandar Puteri, Puchong. At mum’s suggestion, we came here for her birthday dinner. The shop is spacious, comfy and spans across two shoplots. Good thing it wasn’t too busy!

The twist is that instead of just chucking everything into herbal soup, you get a tray to steam your stuff that absorbs the flavour of the soup underneath.

Timer to make sure everything is perfectly cooked. You don’t have to worry about it though as the friendly staff there will help you out with the cooking 🙂

Done! As the steam rose, the fragrant smell of sliced ginger and herbal soup wafted up into our faces. The meat is tender and juicy, and went perfectly with soy sauce and other condiments.

Other than chicken, they also have options for meat, fish and seafood to be grilled/steamed.

We then moved on to the regular hotpot, removing the tray to reveal the boiling hot soup underneath.

Our set had all the regular hotpot items – enoki/shiitake mushrooms, fried beancurd, pork balls, shrimp, loads of veges, yam, fishballs and wood ar fungus.

STONE STEAM POT

69G & 71G, Jalan Puteri 2/3,

Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong, Selangor.

Tel: 03- 5887 8818

Hometown Steamboat, C180 Cheras

February 1, 2016February 1, 2016Posted in FoodTagged Asian, beauty, fashion, food, hotpot, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, manicure, restaurant review1 Comment

Been eating like a pig these past few days D: Holiday season is the worst time for the waistline.

Went for dinner with K at Hometown Steamboat at C180 in Cheras, just opposite the Aeon Cheras Selatan mall. There is a commercial block here with loads of restaurants and a stretch of steamboat outlets.

Very orange

We ordered two sets. Don’t be fooled by the large mound – they were mostly vegetables. There was shrimp, fried beancurd sheets, pork balls/fish balls, fish noodles, crab meat stick, oyster mushrooms, quail egg, dumpling… pretty much standard hotpot fare.

Another set which had tofu, some deep fried beancurd thingy which was very oily and tasted horrible. Stay away from their fried stuff if possible, they tasted like they had been cooked in stale oil. Other than that, everything was normal steamboat stuff. We opted for herbal and the chicken soup base.

Fried noodles and egg.

Enough for two. Bill came up to RM54.

As far as steamboat outlets go, this wasn’t the worse, but it wasn’t the best either.

HOMETOWN STEAMBOAT

B-21-G, B-22-G, B-23-G, Dataran C180, Jalan C180/1, Batu 11,

43200 Cheras, Selangor, Malaysia

Phone:+60 3-9082 1338

Opening hours: Daily (5pm – 12am)

Did my nails for the new year at a manicure shop at J-Avenue called Hand & Nails (pretty straightforward name lol). Service was friendly and attentive, but prices were a bit steep for their gel (RM95). I got the F156 colour. It turned out a bit lighter than I thought, but it still looked nice and sparkly.

I love this colour – it always reminds me of deep sapphire blue pools and starry galaxies. 🙂

Bone & Pot Steamboat, Bandar Puteri Puchong

January 19, 2015March 22, 2016Posted in FoodTagged Asian, Bandar Puteri, Bone & Pot, hotpot, Malaysia, Puchong, steamboatLeave a comment

One of the best things that you can have on a cold, rainy day is hotpot (we call it steamboat here in Malaysia). What can be heartier than a hot bowl of 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 pretty quirky – ‘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.So the name can’t be more appropriate. ba dum tsh

Unlike other conventional steamboat outlets, the place specializes in Collagen Soup. You’ve probably heard of collagen face masks and beauty products, but soup? 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

Puchong Branch

+603 8066 7722A |47, Jalan Puteri 2/3,
Bandar Puteri,
47100 Puchong, Selangor

Review: Low Maji – Steamboat in A Winter Melon – Bandar Puteri, Puchong

June 2, 2014June 5, 2018Posted in FoodTagged Asian food, dining, eating, Featured, food, food photography, food review, hotpot, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Puchong, steamboatLeave a comment

Ever had steamboat in a winter melon?

To try out the ‘novelty’, we went to Low Maji, a popular steamboat place in Bandar Puteri, Puchong. The name is a fond Cantonese way of referring to ‘mother’ and literally translates to ‘Old Mum’.

Customers can opt for the normal soup base (spicy/normal), or the winter melon bowl soup. The winter melon is carved out and boiled, and you dip various meats, veges and other condiments into it. The melon’s flesh really gives the overall broth a refreshing flavour.

We ordered the set meal for two, since my family aren’t big eaters, and then added on a few ala-carte dishes. The set is priced around Rm30++ and comes with needle mushrooms, crab meat sticks, an egg, fried foochook (beancurd sheets stuffed with fish paste), pork balls, vege, vermicelli, shrimp and meat.

They were quite stingy with the meat/fish though. Mum was like “Wow, they couldn’t have sliced the fish thinner” lol.

My favourite: Pork stomach! I love chewy-textured food, which means I like to have innards such as stomach and intestine when I have hotpot.

Overall the food was okay, but the soup did make a difference. You could taste the sweet overtones of the melon.

The place was quite packed for the weekend. Only qualm is that they didn’t have ventilation so the hot steam from the cooking lingered around inside the air-conditioned space.

There was also a giant melon outside the restaurant with a quirky quote:

“Never try it’s your fault,

Only try one, my fault”.

Whichhhhhh I think means that you would be missing out if you didn’t try it, but if you don’t like it after trying then the boss has failed to make a good meal(????) You need a certain degree of skill if you’re going to translate Manglish.

Low Maji Steamboat Restaurant 老妈子

5 Jalan Puteri 1/4, Bandar Puteri, 47100 Puchong, Selangor

Phone:03-8060 1168