Double steamboat - a partition of torture

The steamboat is a modern version of the Mongolian hotpot. With the latter, charcoal is used to heat the soup while steamboat relies on gas or electric stoves to do the job. 

Most people do not find this concept appealing .Me too initially, until the day it dawned on me that hey, I actually know how to develop a hearty soup on the spot. While satisfying, the whole steamboat experience isn't very exciting. We need a little spice in our lives.

So last week, we ended up here, where half the excitement lies in that nasty red looking half side. The soups are partitioned and they will never mix, thus you've got the best of both worlds. Crazy  Spicy hell on one side and normality on the other .

We really shouldn't have. Because the southern Tomyam soup was so fiery, my ass was on fire the morning after. Yup. That bad but everybody in the picture above shows no sign of such insidious torture. They look happy even . Which was why we also could not loose face ( you can face palm now ) Should have stuck to the boring old plain soup. Bla bla bla too late for regret.

Let's recap our ala carte order.

Beef rolls, pork balls, fish balls, chicken breast meat, fish fillet, tofu sheets stuffed with fish paste, shitake mushrooms and long chinese cabbage.

Now we cook.

Start with the long chinese cabbage first. Allow it to simmer till softened slightly , then add the shitake mushrooms , followed by chicken breast meat, pork and fish balls.

Ignore the red unless you're on a sadistically suicidal mission like us.

Add some deep fried garlic only to the clear soup , followed by the fish fillet and boil some more. Add the stuffed tofu sheets. Leave it to boil till bubbling. A 5 to 10 minute wait should do the trick. 

Pretend the red half isn't there. Unless you're numbskulls like us.

Just before you lower the heat, dip the beef rolls in till cooked. Only put in what you want to eat . Leave the other frozen rolls alone until you want to eat them again. Make sure you start the soup on boil again before you do that.

See the frilly leaf lettuce ? Do not put that in your soup. Keep it for last as the stock will change from sweet to queer. Surprisingly, the beef rolls went well with the devilish soup. Maybe because I think it's buffalo meat rather than fine Aussie or US beef. Which means, while the texture may be rough, it is certainly much more flavourful .

Try it only if you dare. 

Bill. Wait a minute , we got billed for partial self inflicted torture ? 

Location : 3rd floor, Prangin Mall