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I seldom have hankering for hotpot meals in restaurants. Besides the soup base - and often I would prefer something clear or even plain water - it's mostly about the ingredients. There isn't much cooking skill involved, and I freely admit to having next to none in that department. I'm almost always joining friends or family when I find myself at a hotpot restaurant. So it was the case today... when Mr. Chichi extended a rare invitation to join him for Beijing-style lamb hotpot (涮羊肉).
Having spent a lot less time in Central over the last year or so, I've been oblivious to the opening of
Peking Hotpot (新京熹老北京涮肉火鍋) - a genuine Beijing import. I had, in fact, walked past it last month without taking much notice. But since Mr. Chichi is organizing, I figured I'd get to have a pretty good experience - and a lot of food.
We have the
hotpot with traditional clear broth (傳統清湯鍋).
We were presented with the array of
condiment sauce (搭檔小料), and I love the traditional sesame sauce.
Radish in Beijing sauce (京味醬蘿蔔)
Qianlong cabbage (乾隆白菜) - this was pretty nice with good acidity to whet one's appetite.
10cm multilayer grass-fed sheep with crispy bones (錫盟草飼10cm多層高鈣) - interesting that this was sliced to include some cartilage a.k.a. "crispy bones / high calcium".
There's a real crunch here from that cartilage.
180 days grass-fed lamb from Xilingol League (錫盟草飼180天羔羊肉) - looking beautiful here.
Thick-sliced Australian grain-fed snowflake beef steak (厚切穀飼雪花牛小排) - I was honestly very surprised to find beef on the menu, but this looked very beautiful.
5A snowflake mutton from Ningxia Yanchi (雪花5A寧夏鹽池灘羊) - pretty thin slices, and nice marbling.
We got ourselves some performative tableside service with the next cut of lamb sliced in front of us. And we all dutifully got up from our seats to film the action with our phones...
Fresh-sliced fillet of grain-fed sheep from Xilingol League (鮮切寧夏灘羊羊梅花) - this was very, very nice.
Carbon-barbecued snowflake beef (炭烤一口雪花牛) - surprised to see "beef satay" here...
Fresh-sliced grain-fed lamb shoulder from Xilingol League (鮮切錫盟穀飼羊背尖) - this was really nice, thanks to the fat on the sides.
Fresh-sliced sheep backstrap fillet from Xilingol League (鮮切錫盟穀飼羊上腦) - very interesting cut from the back of the neck.
Hand-sliced beef flower tendon from west Shandong (鮮切雲貴川黃牛花腱)
Fresh-sliced Angus tenderloin of cattle (鮮切雲貴川黃牛吊龍) - always a nice cut of beef for hotpot.
Mutton kebab with tamarisk (紅柳枝羊肉串) - the mutton was skewered with branches of salt cedar.
This was really tasty, thanks to both the fat as well as the chewy texture.
Classic crispy beef tripe (經典大片脆毛肚)
Pickled sour mustard greens from Northeast (東北土缸酸菜) - we were asked to drop these into our pots, and with more time cooking, the more it changes the acidity balance of the broth.
Peking pancake with sesame paste (老北京麻醬燒餅) - I wouldn't have objected to a couple of more of these.
Mashed Beihai shrimp balls with crab meat (蟹肉北海鮮蝦滑)
Origin mushroom platter from the Southwest (原產地雲貴川鮮菌) - these were nice, but we'd had way too much meat by now.
Origin vegetable platter (原產地四季菜籃子) - I tried to shove some veg into my system, but not a lot of room left.
Peking lamb noodles (北京羊肉汆麵) - this was very tasty, and I loved the bite in the noodles.
Peking sugar oil cake (老北京糖油餅) - interestng "dessert". What's not to like about deep-fried dough, especially when it's a little sweet?!
Deep-fried Peking dough sticks (老北京油條) - FUCK YEAH MORE DEEP-FRIED DOUGH!
Osmanthus yam cheese (桂花山藥酪) - this was actually kinda nice.
We had a couple of zeroes in our group, and thanks to the relentless onslaught of dishes, we were too busy eating to actually drink much. So... very civilized tonight.
2015 Louis Roederer Cristal - nice acidity on the palate. Easy to drink, but not a whole lot of character at this stage.
Krug Grande Cuvée, 161ème Édition, en magnum, ID 113017 - beautifully aged, with classic toasty nose, good depth on palate with lemon and marmalade.
2005 Pax Syrah Kobler Family Vineyard - started drinking about 1 hour and 45 minutes after decanting. The nose was kinda muted now compared to what I know this wine could be, but still showing some fragrant, woodsy notes with good concentration. Nice but not explosive.
This was way, waaaaay too much food, and I'd like to come back on another occasion when the weather is cooler, and order less than half of what we had tonight. I love lamb and mutton, but I do prefer meat that's a little more "lamby". Nevertheless, a pretty good night.
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