Revisiting 辛殿火锅 (Xindian Hotpot), the Best Steamboat In Taipei, Taiwan

July 1, 2015November 10, 2017 by mealofchampions ♥ 1 Comment

Looking for a Steamboat restaurant in Taipei with fresh, delicious beef, pork and lamb, as well as free flow bottled drinks and Haagan Dazs/Movenpick ice cream in a comfortable environment with clean toilets? Look no further. 辛殿火锅 (Xindian Hotpot) hits nail on the head as a steamboat restaurant which truly knows what a customer wants.

One of my most anticipated meals of this trip to Taipei was to Xindian Hot Pot. I visited 2 years ago and it left a deep impression on me as The Best Steamboat in Taipei, Taiwan, which is one of my most popular blog posts. I visited Xindian Pot twice in my 2 weeks in Taiwan.

I went there at 7:40PM on a Tuesday with 2 others. We made a reservation 2 days in advance. I highly recommend making a reservation at least a day in advance to avoid any disappointment. It was fully booked when we tried to make a reservation in the morning. They accept walk-ins if you are willing to wait.

Electronic pot — Electronic Pot on their Marble Table

As we approached the place, there was a long queue outside and the restaurant was crowded. It was even more crowded than I previously remembered. As a big group left, the entire staff cleaned and prepared the tables for the next group of customers very quickly.

I was excited to be back in here and was luckily given the table with the sofas! Just by having sofas, it makes the entire experience so much more comfortable, which makes you not want to leave.

The sauce station is the same as before. One of my favourite sauces is the XO sauce.

Free flow Haagen Dazs and Movenpick ice cream, as well as bottled drinks! There is also drink dispenser machines and a hot drinks machine.

A bottle opener is placed at the left of the fridge to open the bottles.

Within 2 years, the restaurant has not changed much. The area is still clean, and everything is the same as I’ve remembered. The menu has changed to offer more than before.

When you get seated, the staff will ask if you’ve been here before, and will bring the standard pot of soup to your table, a Yin Yang pot of Mala (Spicy) Soup and Chicken Soup. The Mala Soup comes with Blood Cake inside which you can eat or throw away if you don’t like it. It does not affect the soup taste. I came with a Taiwanese who thoroughly enjoyed the blood cake. This is one of my favourite mala soups around in steamboat establishments.

The chicken soup that came with dates and wolfberry inside, and was delicious from the start up til the meal ended.

We started by ordering all the meats available. They have various types of beef, pork and lamb.

The top choice of the night was their 美国五花牛 (American 5-flower beef), which we ordered non-stop. It was not frozen. It’s easily cooked shabu-shabu style and dipping it with their XO sauce makes it easily the top dish of the night. It was impossible to be bored of it, even when we were full.

Another worthy mention was the 黑毛花猪 (Pork) which went well with both soups.

I
There was also a few unique dishes like the fish wonton, cheese ball and duck meat balls. It felt like a premium selection, and were all tastier than expected.

Some must-have dishes are the Wang Zi Mian/Prince Noodles (Taiwan’s instant noodles) and the 卤肠(Braised Intestine). 卤味can be seen everywhere in Taiwan with long queues, and it’s one of Taiwan’s iconic dishes. I was amazed at the 卤肠’s flavour while being mixed with the mala soup, making it spicy while retaining the 卤 taste.

The Wang Zi Mian tastes different from instant noodles you usually have, and is somehow extremely tasty with the mala soup. We ordered a few packets of it and stuffed ourselves.

There was also an impressive selection of seafood with Baby Squid, Scallops, fresh Lala(蛤蜊/clams) and Oysters. Yes, free flow oysters!! It was much bigger before cooking, like the size of raw oysters in international buffets.

The Lala was fresh and plump(!!) prompting us to order it non stop.

We ended the meal by ordering cake. There were 6 different varieties of desserts, and since we didn’t really know how to read Chinese, we ordered one of everything.

We spammed the Mango Milk pudding. It was creamy with a nice milky smell as you put it in your mouth, with mango infused in the entire solution. Oh-so-good. There is also a Hokkaido Milk cake, Tiramisu etc. All free flow.

From this post, I believe you can tell that we basically ordered everything non-stop haha but with 3 hungry guys in Taiwan, we were already trained to eat more than usual with the nightly Ye Shi visits.

Directions:
Exit 7 of Songjiang Nanjing MRT, on the yellow line. Walk straight towards the building in the picture.

Exit 7 of Songjiang Nanjing MRT. Walk straight towards here.

Keep walking straight. You’ll pass a Toyota Dealer.

Walk til you see a Haagen Dazs and Movenpick standee outside. There should be a queue if you go around dinner.

The crowd outside.

One thing I’d like to note about Xindian Pot is that there is no wait time for your dishes. From my own experience, all dishes ordered are delivered within a minute. The staff is attentive and clears empty plates and bottles immediately.

Price:

It’s very easy to walk to Xindian pot, and even easier to fall in love with their food. Even 2 years later, to me, this is still the Best Steamboat in Taipei, Taiwan.

I'll be back for more! — I’ll be back for more!

Getting there
台北市中山區松江路129-4號
3-4 minute walk from Songjiang Nanjing MRT, Exit 7.
Walk straight all the way (pass Toyota)

Contact: +886 2 2503 7667.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xindianhotpot
Website: http://www.xindianpot.com.tw/intro.htm

Cost
498NT for lunch (~S$21.60)
598NT for dinner (~S$26.20)

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Han Shi Fang (汉食坊) Steamboat, 331 Upper Paya Lebar

May 12, 2015May 12, 2015 by mealofchampions ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

My family loves spicy food. As a lover of mala and intensely spicy flavours, I actively seek out the best steamboat restaurants in Singapore as much as possible. I chanced upon Han Shi Fang (汉食坊) when I found out that the owner of this place was the ex-staff in my old favourite steamboat establishment.

The restaurant was small but had very attentive staff with good service. They also have a clean toilet and free wifi.

Han Shi Fang isn’t your regular buffet place where you keep ordering the same things over and over again. It’s a fully ala-carte restaurant, where you choose what you want and pay-per-dish. Initially, I thought that we would be spending a lot of money here. However, I found that we actually spent less, had better quality food and was generally very satisfied compared to buffet places which easily costs over $22.

The entire place seems really clean and proper, and the ordering process very easy with an iPad. Their menu has everything you would expect from a steamboat place; meats, seafood, veg etc. There are also premium dishes like crabs etc. They also have a BBQ plate attached to the steamboat pot, which we did not utilize as we just wanted the steamboat experience.

The special pot, with BBQ in the middle (optional).

When we were seated, we were already introduced to the pot. The staff here mentioned that the pot was specially brought in from China, and the sides of the pot was made of a material that ensured that you would not get accidentally burnt. It seemed like a lot of attention was given to their crockery as everything was beautifully engraved with their logo.

We were also given complimentary side dishes, which appears to change once in awhile. We were served radish and fried potato, while previously we were given peanuts and beancurd skin.

Han Shi Fang differentiates itself from the competition by giving its customers an authentic Chinese Steamboat experience. Not only were all the staff Chinese, the utensils, pot, even beer and soups were also in a very original Chinese style – in a good way.

Yanjing Beer. Non-alcoholic canned and house-brewed drinks are available.

The next thing I was impressed by was the sauces. We were given three different sauces – peanut sauce, their specialty chilli and curry powder.

Peanut Sauce, House-Special Chilli, Curry Powder

I found myself using the chilli sauce and curry powder the most. The curry powder reminds you of the Maggi Curry powder, and both goes very well with their dishes.

We chose the Mala Soup, my personal favourite, and one recommended non-spicy soup, Chicken Soup, which is our usual benchmark for comparison among steamboat restaurants.

The chicken soup was tasty throughout the entire meal. I feel that it was generally better than most basic chicken soups in steamboat places I’ve been to. A plus point is that it stayed tasty and consistent throughout the meal, even with dishes being added. Not all places have soups of such strong flavour that retains until the end of the meal.

Their Mala Soup comes in varying levels of spiciness. Less Spicy, Normal, Medium Spicy and Extra Spicy. We usually go for Extra Spicy, but found that the levels of spiciness here is proportionate to the oil levels, so we ordered Medium Spicy, less oil (Which is suspect is normal spiciness). It was not overwhelmingly spicy but still very oily. The mala soup complemented their dishes really well, and tasted even better with more meat dishes being added in.

We started off with fish slices ($6). Tasted pretty ordinary like any other place, but presented nicely.

20150411_203507 — 肥牛卷, Fat Beef Rolls. ($12 Small, $18 Medium)

All of us agreed that their best dish was the 肥牛卷, Fat Beef Rolls ($12 for small, $18 for medium). The beef was thinly sliced, making it cook really fast by simply swishing it into the hot soup a few times. It was delicious and complemented the sauces well. It was so good that we had to order it twice.

We also ordered the mushroom platter which serves a variety of mushrooms like Enoki (Golden) Musroom, White Beech Mushrooms, Oyster Mushrooms and King Oyster Mushroom. It was a good variety platter that is good for its price.

The pork belly, at $10, was another dish we enjoyed. It was definitely superior to the pork you get at other steamboat restaurants, and was a generous portion at $10.

Another highlight dish is their Handmade Fishballs ($5), which was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend ordering a large portion of fishballs. It was twice the size of regular Dodo fishballs, and had a springy consistency that is different from regular fishballs. It also did not harden if left to boil, and it was something that I ate the most among my family.

The handmade noodles was easily my dad and my favourite dish of the night. At only $4, they served 2 generous portions of noodles. The noodles did not harden or become soggy easily even with over-boiling, and I personally finished an entire portion myself. At only $4, this was incredible value with the amount of noodles they gave. A highly, highly recommended dish. The noodles go along well with both the mala and chicken soup. This picture alone makes me hungry and crave for the noodles!

There were so many dishes that we ordered that night, and Han Shi Fang offered such a large variety. Unfortunately we were so full by then that we closed the bill for the night, at $72.90 (~$18/pax) for 4. Usually, our bill is around $54 (~$13/pax), but we ordered extra that night.

In conclusion, Han Shi Fang is one of the greatest alternatives to your regular steamboat place. My family has steamboat 1-2x weekly, and Han Shi Fang remains a place that we visit at least once a month. With a clean environment and large variety of quality dishes at an extraordinarily low price, Han Shi Fang is easily one of the best value-for-money steamboat places in Singapore.

Han Shi Fang is an approximately 10 minute walk from Bartley MRT, or 10 bus stops from Paya Lebar MRT.

Address:
Han Shi Fang – Steamboat and BBQ King (汉食坊-汤烤火锅王)
331 Upper Paya Lebar Road
Singapore 534949
Tel: +65 82238976
Contact Number:
6283 7863
Cost:
$13-$20

신길동 매운짬뽕: SPICIEST Jjampong in Korea. (From the show Roommate 룸메이트)

March 2, 2015November 10, 2017 by mealofchampions ♥ 1 Comment

If you’ve watched the popular Korean Variety show Roommate, then you’ll definitely know of the spicy Jjampong featured in one of their episodes. This place was also featured on multiple variety shows like Infinity Challenge, and has idols like SNSD going to try it out .

Can you spot Jessica and Yuri in this picture? — Infinity Challenge

The various cast members went around Seoul searching for the spiciest food to bring back home. Their conclusion was that Singgil’s Spicy Jjampong was the number one spiciest Jjampong and food overall in Seoul.

Song Ga Yeon, Nana, Chef, Seo Kang Joon, Jo Se Ho.

Being a spicy food lover, I knew I had to head there. So we planned this in our itinerary and went out of our way to have a taste.

And our minds were blown.

My family LOVES spicy food. Like, spicier than what the average Singaporean eats. We have weekly Mala Steamboat sessions and our family has our own spicy chilli created. That’s how much and how often we love/eat spicy food.

Located at Singgil-Dong (1 stop away from Yeuido, near 63 City/Hangang Park), it was my first time going to this area although I’ve been to Seoul multiple times. It was pretty easy to find with a map kindly drawn by my Korean friend Hyun-Woo.

For a visual guide with more details, go to the end of this post! :) This is a very brief map we used. — For a visual guide with more details, go to the end of this post! 🙂 This is a very brief map we used.

The interior of this place was covered with photos of celebrities and post-its, attesting to the popularity of this place. I went at around 4:30pm.

The friendly staff warned us of the insane level of spiciness we would be facing. We ordered a bowl to share between two persons but he told my parents to take the normal noodle soup without spiciness as he said it was “dangerous”. They followed his advice after being briefed on the various spices being used here.

Extremely potent spicy chilli from all over the world. I left my mark beside the $1 note! “NUMBER 1, BEST IN KOREA”

We were given a bowl of delicious broth in case we couldn’t take the spiciness. The idea is that we could take some soup and noodles and wash it in the clear broth to wash the spiciness level down. This was how it was served.

The chef/owner did a quick brief on how we should eat it. First, we should start with the noodles, followed by ingredients and finally, the soup. We were strongly advised against drinking too much soup.

My dad asked if the staff themselves tried it. We got heads shaking with them repeatedly saying “dangerous!”

On the first mouth, I thought I could take it. Honestly, it was one of the most delicious Jjampong I had in Seoul even with the levels of spiciness. I couldn’t stop eating. The spiciness level was okay for me until it started to build up slowly. When I stopped for awhile, I regretted immediately as tears started forming in my eyes and I rushed towards the fridge to grab a carton of milk. (2000KRW for Banana Milk!)

My girlfriend was wiping my sweat non-stop. There is a huge toilet roll in front of you for you to wipe your sweat/tears. There is also a water cooler for you to refill your cups, and a toilet. Trust me, you’ll need it. Oh, and she gave up after a mouth and ordered Kimbap to eat instead.

I’m ashamed to say that I ran out repeatedly to get a cold blast of the winter winds to help fight my perspiration and internal flame from the sheer spiciness of the Jjampong. And I’m proud to say I’m a finisher.

Broth in the white bowl and the finished bowl in the green!

For its value-for-money price, novelty factor and deliciousness, I strongly recommend every spicy food lover to try it. I know I’m definitely going back.

Directions:
1. Take the subway to Singgil Station

2. Exit from Exit 1

Exit 1, beside Dunkin Donut — Exit 1, beside Dunkin’ Donuts

This is what you should see when you exit. Walk on the pavement on your right beside the main roads.

3. Walk straight past the parking lot on your left.

Walk past the parking lot on the left. — Walk past the parking lot on the left as seen in the picture.

4. Keep walking down for about 200m until you see a CU Convenience Store on the left.

5. Cross the road towards block 402.

6. When you cross the road, you should see ICOOP building in between block 402 and MS Tower Hill. Walk on the right road, in between ICOOP Building and MS Tower Hill.