Steamboat (at home)

A day after Jacky Cheung's concert, a steamboat dinner was organized, in conjunction with Aunt Yvonne's upcoming birthday. The other reason was to "officiate" the can of abalone which I bought during Chinese New Year (can't wait to try).

I was really looking forward to this dinner as we seldom frequent steamboat restaurants and the fact that family-style steamboats usually boast minimum usage of MSG and fresher ingredients. Let's not forget unlimited helpings too!

For the soup base, the main ingredients were chicken and pig bones, which are the fundamentals for a rich-flavoured soup.

As for the ingredients for the steamboat (besides abalone), we added in crabs, meatballs (MSG-filled but still an all-time favourite!), oyster mushroom, dried beancurd skin, fish, Chinese cabbage, vermicelli, quail eggs, beancurd, wantons, prawns and the list goes on and on.

The soup tasted really sweet and clear, thanks to the addition of seafood such as crabs and prawns. A topping of cilantro and spring onions added extra flavour and texture to the soup. All ingredients were cooked just right (under Mum's watchful eyes).

I must compliment Mum on the wonderful wantons. The poached prawns wrapped in wanton skin exhibited a firm and juicy filling within a smooth layer of wanton skin. No MSG, no artificial flavouring. Nice! I usually help Mum to wrap the filling but since I was busy experimenting my camera, Mum had to do it herself.

Apart from the steamboat, I was also really looking forward to the roasted duck. Cousin Andy bought this in PJ (I must get the address from him) and according to him, this is a bestseller and is usually sold out within a few hours of sale. The fragrant skin was not charred and the meat was absolutely tender (a teenage duckling, perhaps?). The duck taste was retained (no much herb infusion) and usage of salt was optimum. A little inappropriate for a steamboat dinner but still, an outstanding winner!

After the wonderful dinner, we had a birthday cake (Tiramisu) for dessert. Guess where did I buy that cake? Read the next post to find out.

Chong Pang 2-in-1 BBQ Buffet

Marina south is often associated with low-priced range of steamboat restaurants. Hordes of families, teens and friends can be found breaking out a sweat here while grilling their favourite seafood every weekend. I must say it's fun to see people inspecting the selection of seafood, laughing at eat other's cooking antics and the mad rush for the limited specialties (I usually just join in the fun!). In fact, this is where my peers and I used to hang out when we first started our working life.

I myself have not visited Marina South for steamboat for about 2 years now. It was not until last Sunday (when my friend, Jacq and her husband, Jeremy invited me to join them at Chong Pang) that I've decided to revisit this place.

The price for an adult was S$13.00, inclusive of ice-cream (1 per customer, though). Drinks were sold separately.

A quick glance at the seafood and meat spread revealed no change in the menu since 2 years ago. There were the ever-popular crabs, prawns, mussels, squids, assorted meats and more prawns! The greens section seemed to be the rather unpopular choice but the freshness of the vegetables should be acknowledged. The cooked food section offered the typical fried rice, noodles, french fries, sharks fin soup (??), chili crabs (with fried buns) and chicken wings.

We started off by immersing the crabs, prawns, clams and chicken meat into the clear broth to get a better soup base. While waiting for the soup to boil, we helped ourselves to the chili crabs. The first bite revealed a rather moldy texture of crab meat which really was not a good start to an expectedly long grilling night. Other cooked food sampled were wantons and chicken wings. I must say that the chicken wings were very good that evening. The well cooked wings were grilled to a golden brown colour with almost no char and remained juicy on the inside. The marinate was savoury but not over empowering. I suggest a glaze of honey as the finishing (which will really make me ignore the rest of the dishes).

We had fun trying to not have the oil splattered around the table (or on our clothes) while "grilling" meats and prawns. The marinating sauce for the meat was sweet and went well with the mutton and pork.

We started sieving the cooked crabs once the soup came to a boil and were disappointed to find the same moldy texture as the chili crabs. So, we were only left with the prawns and clams. It is also noteworthy that in between all the cooking processes, we had at least 2 chicken wings each (!!).

By the 10 millionth chicken wing and countless grilled prawns, it began to drizzle. What a great reason to end our frenzy craving for the wings! We rushed to the car and even forgot to redeem our ice-cream.

Considering the price, there's basically nothing much to complain about. For me, the chicken wings saved the day!