Saturday August 4, 2007
By Alice Ching
The restaurateurs below lift the lid on what goes into their steamboat stock.
Local steamboat lovers were all hot under the collar after a local Chinese daily reported that Hong Kong actor Mark Cheng ran down Malaysian steamboat in a magazine interview, claiming that restaurant operators used carcass and stale meat to make the base stock.
Most were scornful of the actor’s dubious claim and dismissed his comments as being totally unfounded. But concerned, many diners decided to get steamboat restaurateurs to lift the lid on what exactly goes into the stock.
Far from plain: Happy Family Steamboat House has a variety of tasty dishes.
Ray Hiew Kok Yaw, who owns and operates Happy Family Steamboat House at the commercial hub in Taman Connaught, shook his head in disbelief when he was told about the actor’s comments.
“No decent restaurateurs will destroy their livelihood by cheating customers,” he said.
“He shouldn’t belittle anyone as those involved in the food business like myself are passionate about eating and food. I personally invested a lot of time and effort in learning the tricks of this steamboat trade from a Hong Kong sifu (master).”
Hiew said his steamboat stock is made from chicken boiled with Chinese herbs for four hours before it is strained to obtain the clear soup. Other soup variants available include tom yam, snow fungus boiled with papaya, and Hong Kong-styled porridge.
Opened in March 2006, the family-run outlet has a steady clientele thanks to its strategic location near a Giant hypermarket and a college.
Sizzling: Xin Cuisine Steamboat offers good soup.
Apparently the outlet’s porridge base is the most popular. A standard serving of ingredients for the steamboat consists of fish balls, fish rolls, sliced fish and chicken, brown squid, spinach, romaine lettuce, prawns, fu pei (stuffed beancurd skin), egg, white beancurd, and Chinese cabbage.
Customers can also order paper-thin slices of beef and lamb, pork tripe, intestines, liver and kidney, New Zealand mussels, fish maw, sliced pomfret, or jellyfish.
Hiew also offers simple but tasty one-dish meals like Ipoh Fish Ball Noodles, Shanghai Noodles with Minced Meat Sauce, Seafood Noodles in Plain Soup (or Spicy Tom Yam) and Braised Yee Mee. These are reasonably priced between RM3.80 and RM5.00 to satisfy the office and student crowd during lunch.
Those who want delicious home-style dishes for dinner should try their Hakka Char Yoke (braised pork), Braised Lamb in Claypot, Hong Kong-style Steamed Fish Head, and Braised Pork Belly in Claypot.
Petite Kaye Ong, who runs the relatively new Summer Kaye Garden (SKG) Restaurant in Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands, was unperturbed by the so-called “mini furore” caused by Cheng.
“It goes to show the actor doesn’t know what he is talking about. Anyone who cooks or has enough common sense knows clear soup may seem like the simplest thing to make but possibly it is the most difficult to get right.
“Do you think outlets that use bad meat and poor quality ingredients would be able to fool customers? The smell and taste would affect the soup, so there’s no way unscrupulous operators can get away with serving bad steamboat,” she said.
At Summer Kaye Garden, the steamboat stock is concocted with Chinese herbs such as kei chi (wolfberries), yok chok (Solomon’s seal rhizome), red dates, ginseng roots and dong kwai (angelica root).
For you to choose: Summer Kaye Garden adds a little spice to the steamboat formula.
The sublime soup is partaken with such ingredients as squid, fish balls, crabstick, squid rolls, sliced fish, watercress, prawns, fu pei (stuffed beancurd skin), egg, and Chinese cabbage. Cooked in the steamboat, the ingredients acquire a subtle herbal flavour. If you wish to add more heat to your highland steamboat dinner, you can opt for SKG’s spicy and sour tom yam stock.
With several superior soup bases to choose from (supreme broth, pork and peppercorn, fiery hot tom yam and clear porridge broth), Concorde’s Xin Cuisine Restaurant offers steamboat that is top-notch.
Here, diners can dunk a range of sumptuous morsels in the steaming hot pot – Australian scallops, fresh tiger prawns, mud crabs, fish maw, sea cucumber, green mussels, pomfret, home-made fish balls with black moss, assorted fresh mushroom, assorted fresh lettuce, deep-fried beancurd skin, white beancurd, yellow egg noodles and bee hoon.
HAPPY FAMILY STEAMBOAT HOUSE
Non-halal
No 12 Jalan Menara Gading 1
Medan Connaught
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (017) 338 0174
SUMMER KAYE GARDEN
Non-halal
F19 Jalan Lembah Jasar
Tanah Rata
39000 Cameron Highlands
Pahang
Tel: (012) 525 3186 / (019) 525 8003
XIN CUISINE
Non-halal
Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Sultan Ismail
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 2144 8750/2144 2200 ext 2338
Source: The Star.
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