There was an evening when we were caught in a massive traffic jam right in the centre of the city. It was raining, chilly and traffic along Jalan Ampang had hardly moved in the last 30 minutes. Stuck in the car and with tummies growling louder every minute, we were craving for something hot and soupy. Steamboat! Yes, that would be perfect for a cold wet evening.
As our car inched forward towards Jalan Sultan Ismail, we had a lightbulb moment – with the Concorde Hotel right by the corner, we recalled that there’s steamboat to be had at Xin Chinese Cuisine. Sure enough, a quick call confirmed that and we immediately turned into the Concorde, out of the horrible jam.
For RM50 nett per person (minimum 2 pax), Xin Chinese Cuisine serves steamboat for dinner on Mondays to Fridays. We were given 2 choices of broth: a clear soup delicately perfumed by fragrant Chinese herbs and the more robust curry laksa broth. Whiffs of spices and coconut milk in the laksa made us even hungrier and we could hardly wait for the fresh ingredients to be served. We didn’t have long to wait as our table was quickly filled with plates of sliced chicken, pork, fish fillet, fish balls, sliced top shell, sliced cuttlefish, fish maw, tiger prawns and freshly made dumplings.
Sliced top shell
Other sides include a variety of greens, mushrooms, beancurd, egg noodles and eggs. And the best-tasting freshly fried beancurd skin, lightly smeared with fish paste. This was so good we promptly ordered a 2nd portion.
These fuchook were really good – eat them on their own or dunk them into the soup!
While tomyum soup was no stranger, we’ve never had curry broth for steamboat before. We generally prefer clear soup for our steamboat but we’re so glad we had Xin’s curry soup because it turned out to be one of the best soups we’ve had! In fact, we found ourselves dipping into the curry section of the pot the entire evening.
Scrumptious freshly-made plump dumplings
The freshly-made dumplings were bursting with minced meat, prawns and chopped vegetables. We almost ordered a 2nd plate but decided to wait and see as our tummies were filling up at that point of time. The curry broth was incredibly good, getting tastier by the minute as we dunked the ingredients in. It’s not surprising that we put in all the egg noodles at the end and slurped up every last strand together with the curry broth!
With happy bellies full and satisfied, we then made our way home about 2 hours later, along smooth clear roads. So the next time you are caught in a bad traffic jam in the Golden Triangle and craving for some hot soup, you know where to go.
XIN CHINESE CUISINE
Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur
2 Jalan Sultan Ismail
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2144-2200