Once in a while I like to break the dinner routine of local eats and singular dishes for a whack-it-all buffet of barbecue, mookata and hotpot steamboat.
Here's the funny thing: I don't plan for it, but it gets kind of hard to pass up a good deal when there's one- and so when a friend told me of this place called Hai Xian Lao that offered hotpot steamboat at a fairly reasonable price- I went.
They have two outlets that I know of.
One's at Shaw Lido on the third floor outside Isetan Department Store. The other's at Wilkie Edge on Selegie Road on the ground floor between Hans and Starbucks Coffee.
I went to the outlet at Wilkie Edge.
Because I'm familiar with the Mount Sophia area, because the decor here looked less extravagant, and because the restaurant itself seemed easier to find.
As with most hotpot steamboat buffets, there were several kinds of soup to choose from- herbal, chicken, collagen, mala and tomato. Collagen is a usual favorite of mine, but today I wanted a lighter soup, so we went for chicken, and tomato instead.
The menu had meats, seafood, vegetables, a selection of fried finger food that you could order to fill in the moments whilst your food was getting cooked, as well as a collection of ingredients that I call hotpot balls.
Amongst the meats we chose several selections of beef, one or two selections of chicken, and a selection of pork. From the vegetable list, we ticked off corn, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, three kinds of mushrooms and broccoli. And whilst we don't have seafood on a regular basis, the fish paste and tiger prawns seemed like good hotpot ingredients to have, so we got them as well
First in went the corn, the broccoli and the cabbage. I wanted the corn and the broccoli soft. Half the corn went into the chicken soup, the other half into the tomato. The broccoli went into the tomato- we thought the sweetness of the soup would complement the bland tasting vegetable. And the cabbage went into the chicken. The cabbage my friend with the tomato didn't want.
The meats, when they arrived, were nicely portioned out.
Chicken pieces and pork went right onto the ladle into the pots both sides.
The beef we ate shabu shabu style, dipping the nicely sliced beef into the pot using our chopsticks, swirling it about in the soup a little, then dipping it into our sauces combining a mixture of sesame paste and sesame oil. Most of our beef we dropped into the chicken soup- the tomato made the beef taste a little sweeter than we preferred it to be.
The tiger prawns we dropped into the chicken- prawns and clams are a favorite ingredient of mine when it comes to hotpot soup- never mind the base- I find they make the soup have a distinctive, salt-sea taste which you would not have without.
In between the meats and the vegetables and the fish paste, which by the way, we found quite fun squeezing it out from the tube into the soups, were the ingredients I call hotpot balls.
From the menu list my friend ticked off a couple of my favorites, including fish balls, meat balls, cuttlefish balls, cheese tofu, pre-fried fish balls and, if I'm not wrong, siew mais. One can never go wrong with these at a hotpot steamboat. Quick to cook and fun to have, these aren't just a favorite with children, but they really do make great in-between nibbles when you are scrounging around the pots whilst waiting for your second order of meats and seafood to arrive.
There was also a platter of finger food and small bites.
Meant to be eaten at the start of the meal whilst waiting for the soup to boil up, here they had selections that they bring to you on a plate. Many varieties they had- I don't remember what they were- but we had little oysters, cute little spring rolls, even cuter samosas, and very good chicken wings.
It was a great meal we had.
All in all about two hours we spent there, alternating between cooking the food, eating the food, chatting, asking for more sauce, scrounging around the pots for that escapee mushroom, and slurping up bowls of soup.
There're many places around town for hotpot steamboat these days but Hai Xian Lao has her unique D&B charm, and on the right occasion, when the mood strikes, I'll certainly head back there again.