There were a couple of firsts for me this afternoon in this strata-mall shopping center right in the heart of Chinatown.
Not only had I never had a meal in People's Park Complex before, I'd never eaten a hotpot Thai-style either.
Unlike Mookata (which I've had many times before) I'd never known that there was such a specific style in the hotpot world.
Until today, that is, when a friend told me about it and suggested we go try.
Spicy Bangkok Hotpot is one of those places that you either know, don't know, or have to find.
It's not ulu.
It's just at a very specific spot in People's Park Complex that, unless you're familiar with it, you have to walk about a bit, or enquire from the stern-looking security guard seated at his post behind.
We found it after a while- tucked behind the gamut of mobile phone shops, eyebrow-shaping beauty parlors, shoe shops and the Watsons somewhere close to the McDonalds side.
Once there, however, it's easy to see why this hotpot place has chosen such a spot in this mall, and with such a vibe.
Forget classy, aesthetically pleasing interiors.
This place here is a chapalang of colors and textures that screams Thai street style inside and out.
Whether it be the tower of casually stacked plastic chairs right next to your table, the cartons of drinks stacked on the floor alongside or even the contrasting colors of tables, chairs, wall paint and furniture, it doesn't take long to realize that Spicy Bangkok Hotpot is less interested in ambience, and more about the food.
There were seven soups on the menu that we could choose from.
My friend went straight for the Sliced Beef Tom Yum Goong.
Me, on the other hand, vacillated a while between the Sliced Fish with Tofu, and the Abundance Mushroom before deciding that mushrooms seemed more flavorful an ingredient than fish and tofu.
It was a good choice.
The soup, when it came, felt more like a bubbling broth than the clear chicken stock hotpot soups that I'm normally used to.
Not only was it chock full with mushrooms of all kinds, the broth was a rich dark brown with all kinds of mushrooms- shiitake, the cute little golden head ones, and those mushrooms that curl up in such a way that make you think you're eating black fungus when you're not.
There were quite a couple pieces of big seaweed strips and beancurd strips in my pot too.
If my pot was an earthy-looking dark brown, my friend's pot was a glistening, fiery red.
I had thought it would be very spicy, but one spoonful of his broth told me otherwise.
It wasn't.
That's not to say that there was no spice in the tom yum.
Of course there was- the chef- formerly from a Michelin-starred restaurant- had specially gone to Thailand to learn how to make the soup.
But the spice didn't overwhelm- at least not to such a degree where it completely blanketed the huge, thinly-cut slices of beef cooked shabu shabu style.
I could taste the tom yum from the tom yum goong.
I could also taste the beef.
There was a lot of food swapping between the both of us that afternoon.
Because whilst his had few vegetables, mine had no meat.
Across the table slices of beef went from time to time,
In exchange went strips of beancurd skin and ladies of mushrooms.
Besides the mushrooms, the luncheon meats and the beef ball (from my friend's pot) that I tried, I added a gigantic portion of lettuce taken from the buffet counter too.
Lettuce, cabbage, and green leafy vegetables in hotpots are my thing.
I don't know when it was that I started fancying them prepared this style, but I love dunking them in hotpots, mookata moats, and the ramen pot whenever I make ramen at home.
A mountain of lettuce in the pot not only adds fibre, it makes the pot look exceptionally pretty, fresh and bright too.
I love it best when they come free flow.
Like here at Spicy Bangkok Hotpot where, amongst other ingredients, rice, soup refills and vegetables come free flow.
I can't recall just how many trips I made to the counter for tau kwas, seaweed strips, root vegetables, more cabbage, more lettuce, and those big greens.
But there were quite a few.
Let's just say that lettuce leaves boiled in thick mushroom broth taste exceptionally good.
Let's also say that beef with mushroom broth tastes as good as beef with tom yum goong.
Never mind that there's less kick. :)
We had a pretty good time dunking different kinds of food into two distinctive flavors of soup trying flavors out.
Some, like the tau kwa and the lettuce, went well with the tom yum goong.
Others, like the beef ball and luncheon meat, tasted more interesting with the mushroom.
Perhaps at another time I might go for the Sliced Beef with Golden Soup (made from sour papaya!) or the Sliced Fish with Tofu.
Better yet, I'll want to go for their Lemongrass Chicken Wings, their Soy Sliced Pork, Crispy Meat, Tiger Prawns and their dessert of Brown Sugar Rice Cake.
I'm sure I'll end the meal on a happy, happier note, and make me come back for more of their hotpots really, really soon.