Saturday, September 7, 2013

Spicy Chong Qing Steamboat Affair at San Hui Wen SS2 PJ by Best Restaurant To Eat

Steamboat is always a nice way to share meals with friends especially with the recent wet weather that we are experiencing. On a cold evening, having a spicy steamboat will vet all your senses.


Here, we had the opportunity to taste a Spicy steamboat version at San Hui Wen (China Chong Qing Steamboat Restaurant located at 30, Jalan SS2/66, 47300 Petaling Jaya.


The most important element of a good and wholesome steamboat had to be the soup base. As you would find around town, the norms soup bases are Chicken soup, Herbal soup, Tom yam, Clear soup and even Porridge (be it pumpkin or clear porridge). Here, at San Hui Wen, they have 2 version of the soup base which is the Herbal and Spicy Herbal base.


The lady boss which, incidentally was from China says she could not find a steamboat restaurant that serves authentic Chong Qing style steamboat and henceforth decided to start her own steamboat restaurant. In Chong Qing China, due to the cold weather, steamboat is one of the most frequently eaten dishes and the real spicy soup base is the top choice as this will keep them warm too. There you can literally find many restaurants serving Spicy Steamboat.


Let’s review the first soup which is the herbal soup base. Most other places their herbal soup base, are rather bland (I am sure you will agree on this). You won’t really want to start drinking the soup before you start putting stuff in ingredient. Here the soup is boiled using the best selection of herbs and you can smell the strong aroma, the minute you enter the restaurant. The strong smell lingers around the whole place. You can see that there are abundant of wolfberries floating on the soup base.


The spicy version meanwhile were added with the spicy chilli oil and once you taste it, the spiciness is very tingling and pungent in that you can easily, get choked up. You have an option to order whether you want it normal, mild hot or super hot. You also have the option to order whether less oil or more oil on the soup base. Personally, I reckon, the best is still the normal one.

Pork, Chicken, Lamb Meat Slices

When I had my first China steamboat in Tian Jin, he had this thinly slices of Mongolian lamb. The nice things about this thinly slice meat, is it that it can be cooked very quickly, usually around 15 seconds or less depends on the boiling temperature of the soup. You are supposed to just dip the meat with your chopstick into the steamboat soup, not really dumping into the pot and let it boils inside the soup. This way the meat will not be too hard and very chewy.


Most of the time, these slices are cut from areas of the poultry where they are some layers of fats like the belly parts which is one of the best part for steamboat. Depending on your personal preferences whether you like it hard, chewy or medium done, you are able to control how much of dips you want into the soup.


Here in San Hui Wei, we were served 3 types of finely and thinly slices of meat i.e. Pork Slices, Chicken Slices and Lamb Slices.

I find the meat slices here, goes very well with the strong signature herbal soup, the strong taste of the herbs were immerse deep into the slices as we lightly dip into the soup and with the highly recommended dipping which, was concocted by Maggie (the lady boss), it was a perfect blend to this perfectly slice pieces.

Home Made Parsley Pork Balls / Pork Slice

Home made dishes are usually looked up upon. The mere mention of home made will raise your bar and expectation.


We were told that the Parsley Pork Meat Ball was made by the Chinese chef. Of course, he uses a special recipe to marinate the chopped meat. Frankly speaking, I have never eaten a pork meatball that comes with Parsley. Most of the time, the pork meatball that I have eaten will use either a preserved vegetable like “Tong Choy” or cuttle fish but Parsley is another ball game.


To me, it was just okay and didn’t spring any surprise to my palate. Better to eat it with the herbal soup and make sure you don’t overcook it as it will be dry and hard.


The marinated pork slice was much better. I usually preferred fresh meat compared with processed foods. They are 2 main advantages, one you can control on how much to cook it whether medium or well done. Secondly, the flavour can be jive in with the soup and when you are done, the soup will become a strong broth when you finish all your food.

Spicy Chicken – Sze Chuan Style – Real Hot Stuff

This is a courtesy special dish from San Hui Wei. This is not in the menu. You can order ala carte for this dish.

This simple looking chicken dish is very spicy. Laden with dry chillies, fresh chilli padi and chilli oil, this dish is super spicy, even for me, where I am used to very spicy food.



The unique part to this dish is when you take your first bite. Surprise as it seems, it does not taste that spicy. As the chicken goes into your tummy, you start to realise the degree of spiciness that is expunge out i.e the more you eat the spicier it becomes. My friend Mr. Kong was perspiring profusely with every piece of chicken eaten.


But one thing funny about this dish, it is quite addictive (if you can stand the spiciness) the more you eat, the more you want to take another piece. This dish would have been a perfect match for any the alcoholic drink especially a cold beer. Indeed this dish is that it bears the resemblance to the Chinese saying of San Hui Wei which literally lingering taste and that is how the name of the restaurant was taken from.

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