Fish Steamboat in Butterworth

My year end review is on a steamboat restaurant located on Raja Uda in Butterworth. It was my first time in this part of the town and I was surprised by the number of eateries along this long road. There were restaurants, food courts, hawkers centres and food stalls. They all looked very tantalising. But our objective that evening was some nice steamboat.

Zi Wei Yuan is quite a mouthful in name, but wait till you get a mouthful of their steamboat. It was a big spacious place. The shop was extended outwards to provide the space. It was adorned with typical Chinese red - red steel structures, red lanterns, red curtains, red blinds. Thankfully the tables and chairs were spared.

Despite the gaud, it was really a very pleasant place. There were lots of empty tables when we arrived there but as we progressed through our meal, the place gradually filled to capacity.

The highlight of their steamboats is fish. The other goodies in the menu are add-ons. There was a choice of fried fish or grouper. We opted for the former.

They used the traditional charcoal pots.

Strictly charcoal. No gas, no electrical stoves.

The only "modern" appliance was this battery operated fan to stoke the flame.

This was the soup in its original form. In it was the fried fish that we had opted. There also was abundant vegetables.

More interestingly, there were pieces of fried yam. They certainly added flavour to the soup, which was sweet and tasty even without the array of food that we were going to put in.

The pieces of fried fish in the soup were fresh and delicious.

Besides the fried fish, we also ordered a plate of grouper. They were super fresh.

These were pork belly strips. I made sure they were not overcooked.

Good size prawns that were also very fresh.

Fish and meat balls.

Sotong. One of my favourites, especially the "janggut" (tentacles).

Pork tripe. I love them for the texture. Particularly delicious in steamboats.

This was fried fu chuk (腐竹- bean curd skin).

Mushrooms.

This was listed in the menu as abalone slices. It certainly tasted like abalone. Very nice indeed. But I seriously doubt if it was genuine abalone. The slices were big. A dish of such a big abalone would had costed a fortune. It definitely was a seafood. I just wonder what kind of abalone wannabe this was.

Quail eggs. These are supposedly very high in cholesterol. But recently readings told me that eggs are good for us and should not be a cholesterol concern. So I had them without any guilt.

Another of my favourite - fish maw.

Tong ho (唐蒿- grand chrysanthemum) is a popular vegetable for steamboat. But they shrink in the soup. They are not expensive. I wonder why they could not serve a bigger portion.

The steamboat in this place is apparently very popular amongst the folks in Butterworth, Prai, Penang and as far as Sungei Petani. I can see the reason why. It was very good. The soup, although looking murky was very tasty. The ingredients were very fresh and of good quality. I enjoyed the meal totally.

Happy New Year 2015.

Charcoal Steamboat

I remember this place to be a western style restaurant and pub. We frequently passed by the area. It did not interest us then - until recently when I realized that it had changed to a steamboat restaurant.

Charcoal World Steamboat Restaurant is located at the busy junction between Lebuh Bandar Utama and the Sprint Highway in Petaling Jaya. It is actually at the corner of Kampung Sungei Kayu Ara in PJU 6. If you drive from the Centre Point in  Bandar Utama in the direction away from 1Utama, you won't miss it. It is at your left side as you drive down into the Sprint Highway.

 

It is a big restaurant, occupying a whole big building. Parking was ample. They even have a basement from where we conveniently walked from our car straight up into the restaurant.

There were several dining areas on different levels. And they were all brightly lighted. There were air-conditioned rooms on the main and lower levels. However on the weekend evening that we were there, the rooms were mainly empty. Most people dined in the open terraces which were cool and breezy - ventilated with large air outlets at various locations.

As its name suggested, the place specializes in charcoal steamboat. It was the charcoal that attracted us to this place. Most steamboat places use gas. We wanted to experience charcoal like the good old days - to see if it is any different from gas.

This was the room where they keep their charcoal and light the fires.

The restaurant serves fresh seafood for their steamboats. In fact, most items in their menu were seafood. They even offer live creatures from their aquarium, if you are willing to pay for them.

We had some non-steamboat starters before our meal. First was the cheese fish cake. It was 6 pieces of deep fried fish cakes with cheese in it. It had a pleasant flavor and a good appetizer.

The fresh oysters were absolutely fabulous. They were totally fresh. I don't know how they keep it so fresh because they must had imported them from somewhere. They were good size too - much bigger than most fresh oysters that I have eaten. Taken with squeezed lemon and tabasco, they were simply marvelous. I think these oysters were the highlight of the meal - not the steamboat. But they were expensive - at a whopping 8 bucks per slurp. Crystal said they were worth it. I wasn't too sure because I had to pay the bill.

We had the herbal soup for our steamboat. The soup was good - sweet and aromatic. I detect a strong flavor of dong quai (當歸 - angelica sinensis). I liked it. It made the soup very pleasant.

The various dishes we had for the steamboat were all very fresh. We like the good quality of their food. Like these lamb slices that we took trouble not to over cook. They were delicious.

The sotong (squid) balls were fresh and springy to the bite.

These fresh scallops were somewhat over-rated and expensive. They may look pretty but I didn't find them extra-ordinary for the price (RM15) I paid.

 

The jellyfish was very nice and crunchy. I liked the texture.

The prawn sui kow (水饺) were ordinary. I didn't think they were well made for they quickly became soggy in the soup.

 

The tofu puffs were stuffed with prawns and some chicken. Like the sui kow, they were not great.

This plate was labelled "Homemade Chicken" in the menu. I don't how they make chicken in the home. I thought we all buy our chicken in the market. Anyway, they were ordinary.

The fish slices were very very fresh. Again, we did not overcook them. I enjoyed the freshness.

For greens, we had tong ho (唐蒿 - garland chrysanthemum), spinach and needle mushroom.

There was 4 different sauces for our food. Three were chili based while the fourth was a fu yee sauce (腐乳 or fermented tofu paste). All the sauces were good, but I was partial to the fu yee. I liked the flavor especially with the lamb slices.

 

Now, how does charcoal compare to a gas or electric steamboat? Food taste-wise, I really could not tell the difference. They were the same. However, we found the charcoal fire painfully slow. I am not sure if it was because they did not give us enough charcoal or if our equipment was not good. It took a long time for the steamboat to come to a boil. There simply was not enough heat. Towards the end of the meal, it took a long time (maybe 2 to 3 minutes) just to cook a piece of sliced fish. There was a sign on the table warning against touching the hot pot. I put my fingers on it and did not feel a thing.

Little Fat Goat

This place has a very tantalizing name - Xiao Fei Yang (小肥羊 - Little Fat Goat). And as mutton is my favorite meat, I had wanted to go there for a long long time. I had passed by the place on numerous occasions with my tongue hanging out and finally got to be there one Saturday evening for a family meal. I had googled the name beforehand and found three restaurants in the Klang valley with this name. The one we visited was in PJ Uptown Jalan SS21/62. The other 2 are in Pudu and Bandar Sunway. I believe they are affiliated. 

I had expected the restaurant to specialize in mutton and lamb - serving exotic dishes of my favorite meat. But it was actually a steamboat place and lamb was just one of the ingredients that you can order for your steamboat.

The one thing that struck us as we settled down into our table was the eating utensils. The bowls, plates, spoons and chopsticks were neatly wrapped in plastics. 

We later found out from our bill that we had to pay to use these utensils. They charge one ringgit per pax for use of the "mess kits". Fancy having to pay to use the bowls, plates, spoons and chopsticks in a restaurant! I wondered how they would expect us to eat if we had refused to pay. I also wondered if we would be allowed to bring our own. I later asked the boss lady why we needed to pay. She said they out-sourced the cleaning of their utensils. So? Wasn't washing plates and bowls part and parcel of running a restaurant - out-sourced or otherwise? What a lame reason! She also said the utensils were sterilized. Yeah right!

Aside from this small irritant, the steamboat they offered was really very good. We were given a choice of herbal soup, hot spicy soup, or a combination of both. The spicy soup looked very red and hot in the adjacent table. None of us fancied that and we opted for the herbal. 


The soup was so very very delicious. It was very sweet and aromatic, even without the meat and other steamboat ingredients in it. I could just drink the soup by itself and be very happy with it. It had various types of herbals and spices. I would not even try to identify these herbals and spices - there were plenty. And there was even a large piece of ginseng. That was the quality of the soup. But we had to pay for it. The soup alone was RM20. Perhaps it was another irritant - having to pay for the soup in a steamboat joint. But given the quality of it, I really did not mind.

We then ordered our steamboat ingredients. We marked them in a order list at the table. All the ingredients turned up fresh and appetizing. The meats were most appealing. We had mutton (but of course), beef and pork. Looking back at the pictures now, I really cannot tell which was what. They all looked so good.

We also had meat balls, tofu, mushrooms and vegetables. All very fresh...

... making a rich potpourri.

Oh yes, the noodles. I have to make a particular mention about their noodles. They were hand made and fresh (not dried) and they tasted awesome when boiled in the rich soup. The noodles were very smooth, yet the texture was springy and so very nice in the mouth. To me, this noodle is a must when you are there.

Besides the steamboat, the restaurant offered very limited other dishes. The plates of fried rice we ordered turned out to be very pleasant.

The meal we had in Xiao Fei Yang was no ordinary steamboat. The richness of the soup and the freshness of all the ingredients made it a real quality meal. The restaurant is very worthwhile. Never mind the irritating RM1 you pay for the bowls and the plates. I recommend you go there for the good quality steamboats.