I wish the pictures of our meal at Yue Long Men turned out prettier.
But I'd gotten my (new) camera only just the day before and I'd hadn't finished reading the manual. Neither had I finished figuring out the buttons, the modes and the configurations for the best pictures.
So whatever you see below is all that I have.
I've had one or two hotpot meals at Yue Long Men before.
Nothing's changed in the time since I was first introduced to them.
They're still at Chinatown- a most fantastic location, by the way- being right next to the Pagoda Street exit of Chinatown MRT station where all you need to do is to come up the escalator, take a right, and they're right there.
Another great thing about their location is that there're a lot of things to see in Chinatown-Chinatown if you wish to walk off your (very full) meal.
One really does fill up at hotpot buffets like these.
Whether it be the meats, the vegetables, the seafood, the (usual) hotpot food, or even the dessert and ice cream, it is very difficult to not want to eat your fill here.
Let's just say it took a bit of thought and careful calculation so that we not only ate enough, not only ate more than enough, but also felt like we were having a buffet meal.
They've got a couple of soup bases here for you to choose.
I like either the pork bone or the miso.
Tomato tends to sweeten everything, tom yum spices up everything and herbal makes everything taste like the ingredients of a double-boiled soup. :D
Today I chose the miso.
But- we modified.
I'd seen sliced watermelon and sliced orange at the serving counter, so I got a plate of oranges, brought them back to the table, and threw them into the jug.
Our iced water got zhnged up immediately. :D
One of the things I like to throw into my pot at buffets like these are the vegetables.
Not just any vegetable- I'm selective that way- but those with the big, big leaves- lettuces and bai cai (I think)- and mushrooms.
Sometimes I choose the shitake mushrooms.
Other times I choose the white ones that are nice and chewy but which get stuck in your teeth.
All my vegetables stay in the pot for a very long time.
I like to keep them in as long as possible in the pot so that they come out mushy, soft, slurpy, bursting with the flavor of soup in each bite.
The way I cook them differ greatly from the meats.
The meats I cook them shabu-shabu style (basically, throw in, swirl, take out) so that they stay soft and tender.
Here we usually rotate between the varieties of beef, pork and lamb.
Now you know why we have to calibrate our portions carefully.
Lamb has to be one of the most filling meats ever (I think).
Its' one of those meats that tastes good but dear me, sits so heavy on the tummy that one tray feels too little but two trays feel too full.
So we usually order one tray each and one more tray to share.
We, however, tend to go more for the beef.
One thing I love about them here is how they take time to arrange the meats beautifully in the platters.
Maybe it's not a big thing for hotpot buffets (as compared to price and variety) but presentation does contribute to the overall experience.
We're patronizing your place after all.
Yue Long Men seems to understand it just fine.
There's also another thing about their customers that I think they understand- and it is that those who come here for a shiok, satisfactory meal know how to appreciate variety.
To that they've got an offering which I have not had at other hotpot places.
Xiao Long Bao.
I don't know if the (better) hotpot places offer it- I haven't been there- but Yue Long Men has- and I love it.
Again we had to restrict ourselves to one basket each and one basket to share.
If it is the (unlimited) xiao long bao that appeals to me, perhaps what more I like about their place would be the service, and the offerings.
See, it does make a difference when you're standing at the vegetable/seafood counter with a variety of mushrooms in front of you.
It does make a difference when you can choose between the carrots, the radishes, the corn cobs, the black fungus, the egg bean curds, the silky bean curds, the prawns, the mussels, some sort of seaweed, the fish balls, the meat balls, the cuttlefish balls and the cheese tofu.
It also does make a difference when the sauce bowls are neat and clean and the staff replenish it enough so that you can have as much of the thick sesame sauce you want without having to scrape the bottom of the bowl.
And it certainly makes for a wonderful end to the meal when you can have two scoops of ice cream- in the flavors of yam, cookies and cream, chocolate, strawberry, lime and durian each.