The general rule of behaviour for broth in steamboats is that it tends to get better towards the end. The simple explanation behind that is due to the enrichment of the soup flavours from the "essence" of all the bits and ends of meats and vegetables that has been cooking in it. This results in the broth becoming more deeply flavoursome or "sweet". That's when it gets tasty. This however didn't quite turn out to be the case here at Chuang Yang Ji Mutton Steamboat (432 Balestier Road, #01-434 Public Mansion, tel: 90033244). And I didn't mean it in a bad way.
The broth in this steamboat was a milky looking concoction of a mutton based soup with herbs which restaurant had explained, takes around 6 hours of preparation. We were all requested to enjoy the soup right at the start before cooking anything to experience the flavour which turned out to be moderately light on the sweet herbs and balanced on the other end with the taste of mutton. I thought that this was quite enjoyable. The food menu was relatively simple; which consisted mostly of lamb (thin sliced meat, ribs, tendon, spare parts and mutton wanton), vegetable options for steamboat and some spicy Szechuan based dishes which we ordered a couple as starters.
There was a chilled saliva chicken and another dish that was described as mixed sliced meats, but the latter was basically thinly sliced beef and tripe. Both are dressed in some spicy and savoury sauces that includes chilli oil and neither was really numbing the palate. Apart from these side order options for the dishes, the only other spicy thing from the restaurant seems to be the dried chilli condiment which looked like a mixture of dried chilli flakes, sesame seed and salt which I used for the meats from the steamboat. It was initially spicy and quite aromatic, but progressively got quite salty that I had to ignore it in favour of eating without condiments instead.
I liked this place enough to seriously consider coming back another day. The next time, I'll probably do with less of the vegetables which made the soup much too sweet for my likings. I'll definitely forgo the mutton dumplings which had thick starchy skin, was filled with meat that I couldn't quite identify as lamb and had some chopped herb that I didn't personally enjoy. All in all, it was a pretty good steamboat and at this point of time, quite the unique place since I don't know of any other mutton hotpots around.
2 comments:
I already like the direction how this is heading... now let's hope all that meat ends up in a spicy hotpot =)
Heh...unfortunately that's not the way the story goes. The broth isn't spicy at all. Although there is nothing to stop anyone from dumping generous potions of that chilli flake condiment into the soup apart from the salt.
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