Eam Huat - Kala fish in a Mongolian hotpot

Anytime you see these brass coloured funnels at dining establishments around Penang , it means that charcoal is used as the means to boil the hotpot soup .

 And while there are plenty of places that offer diners steamboat in this manner , we're coming to Eam Huat mainly because , this is one of the few remaining places where we can magically dine under the stars .

I'll get to their main plus points at the end of this post .

Flooring is a dirt ground sparsely covered by grass with a roof made of leaves and the soft roadside breeze catching your hair like a shampoo advert as the hotpot sizzles away .

Hu hu hu . Too much me .

Arriving earlier before it gets dark has its advantages .

There's more seats , we can choose where we want to park ourselves and well , at least whatever goes into the cauldron can still be seen without having to guess what the ladle will dole out next .

There are dozens of reviews online but what I'd like to show you rather than the usual Garoupa is this deep fried fish called the Kala fish in Hokkien , Ikan Kerisi in Malay , or that Jobfish with a yellow band across the body , in English .

Very tasty , of course it isn't as highly regarded amongst tourists from say , Hong Kong ,who will willingly amputate their arm for a taste of freshly landed giant garoupa I dare say .

Kala is a cheaper fish than garoupa but other than that , I prefer this to Garoupa , just based on the flakier rougher texture and flavour alone .

 Basing our order on a set , we also added on this plate of handcrafted balls of 4 varieties .

It's pretty easy to impress us Malaysian Chinese especially when you present us with tasty , handmade globs made from fishmeat and who knows what else , oh who cares , especially when it gets so springy after you gingerly lower it down to boil .

Mmmm...mmmm .....MYR 15 per plate mind you !  Certainly doesn't come cheap .

The other amazing thing about Eam Huat is , you don't need to wait for the soup stock to develop and simmer .

It's ready the instant those cute little balls become cooked .

Also , the servers constantly top up the soup stock as many times as you want . 

Talk about hospitality .

No wonder it's still so popular after all these years eh ?

Location : Medan Panaga , Batu Lanchang