Happy Lamb Hotpot (快乐小羊), Pacific Plaza

We were intrigued by Happy Lamb Hotpot (#02-10 Pacific Plaza, 9 Scotts Road, tel : +65 9030 6897) because lamb hotpot. A few of these have sprung up in recent years so we thought it was time we gave them a try since we've previously been lamenting over the lack of them. This restaurant is from Inner Mongolia - a region lauded as Lamb Gourmet Capital of China. Sounded interesting to try something from that part of the world.

From what I gathered, lamb served here are either from Mongolia or Scotland. Couldn't tell which were from where though but the quality of ingredients we had were good. Dips aren't available by default and were chargeable.

We kept the focus on lamb, picked a few cuts to try and tried to keep the list of the other hotpot ingredients short. The above was an order of lamb shoulder (羔羊前腿条) - a lean but tender cut of meat.

The other cut we tried was Melaleuca Rib (千层肋腹). More flavour than the shoulder because there were more fat.

There was platter of Happy Spring Lamb (快乐羔羊卷) on the menu. Don't know which part it was but the fat lacing and thin slices made it great for the hotpot.

Their mutton balls (羊肉丸) were pretty good and packed with the lamb-y flavours.

We had a tray of assorted bean curd (营养豆腐拼). Liked these. The frozen tofu (冻豆腐) was amazing because it soaked up an incredible amount of broth from the hotpot.

Pretty good quality prawn paste with tobiko (手工蟹籽虾滑).

King oyster mushrooms (杏鲍菇).

Some daikon (白萝卜) to soak up the broth.

We picked two broths. The one on the right was the Nourishing Marrow Chicken Broth (滋补清汤锅) which tasted herbal and clean. What's left (pun intended) was a Spicy Sour Pickled Cabbage Broth (金汤酸辣锅) which was sour with a bit of heat and Szechuan peppercorn flavour going on.

Damn these spicy lamb skewers (羊肉串) were so good. I would come back just for these.

Lamb dumplings (羊肉水饺) weren't as impressive because the meat was marinated to the point that I couldn't tell. The vinegar with garlic dip that came with it was good for the lamb shoulder though.

We were told by the staff that the Mongolian yoghurt (蒙古酸奶) was good and that she had one daily. I liked it. Don't get the sweet one because the original one already had an almost citrus like sweetness that reminded me of Yakult. I gotta come back for this again.