“Sauna steamboat” is the new buzz in steamboat dining these days. There are several restaurants which are doing a roaring business with this new trend. Basically, it’s steaming raw fresh food over boiling stock. Instead of the usual steamboat where raw food is dunked into boiling soup, food is placed on a steaming tray and slowly steamed over the soup. Juices from the steamed food drip into the soup below, thus intensifying the flavour over time. Trust me, by the time you have steamed the food, do not waste a single drop of that broth!
Located along Old Klang Road, Youmiqi Cuisine’s big billboard beckons. The restaurant occupies two floors, with a main dining hall on the ground level and private rooms upstairs.
Youmiqi Cuisine serves a delectable “sauna steamboat” with a Shunde slant to their broth as well as the method of preparation of the ingredients. Sweet clear flavours of the broth came from meat, some Chinese herbs and winter melons and carrots. For our sauna steamboat meal here, we started with fresh oysters, mud crabs, clams (lala), prawns and sponge gourds. The prawns were first lightly marinated and smothered with chopped garlic while the rounds of sponge gourds were stuffed with chopped garlic and glass noodles.
When steaming food, timing is crucial to ensure that the food is cooked perfectly – neither undercooked nor overdone and rubbery. Oysters generally take 2-3 minutes while crabs take longer, about 7-8 minutes depending on size. The service staff will attend to and help with the steaming, so not to worry. Our steamed seafood came out perfectly: cooked just right, sweet and tasty!
We also had a plate of crunchy black fungus coated with mounds of pork and shrimp paste. These tasted really amazing! The pork-shrimp paste was delicately flavoured to preserve the natural flavours and you can taste freshness in every bite.
Boneless free-range chicken thighmeat and sliced beef came next. The raw meats had first been marinated with some herbs and wine, imparting delicate tantalizing flavours when steamed. Every piece was tender and delicious – definitely must-order items for sauna steamboat at Youmiqi.
Prices of the items for the sauna steamboat are based on portion size and fresh ingredients like the seafood, are according to market prices.
Youmiqi specializes in Shunde cuisine and we were tempted to check-out a couple of their signature items while we were there.
The Steamed Fish – we had a fat tilapia – was a dish that appealed to all our senses. The sliced fish pieces had a variety of aromatics like ginger, spring onions and herbs lining the tray which enhanced the natural sweetness of the fish. Diners can choose from a variety of fish available.
Golden Prawn Noodles (now on promotion at RM9.80/single portion) is another must-order dish. Fresh succulent prawns braised with egg noodles – if we hadn’t been so full, we would have ordered another portion – it’s amazingly good!
Another Shunde favourite is the sweet-savoury Special Fine Pancake (RM28) with crispy layers of fine pastry encasing a nutty filling sweetened by maltose. The aroma alone was insane.
We’ll definitely be heading back soon to Youmiqi for their other Shunde dishes.
YOUMIQI CUISINE
57 Batu 3 Jalan Klang Lama
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-7980-0855
Open: 11.00am-3.00pm; 6.00pm-11.00pm
man, these are some fantastic looking dishes, love the lala & oysters.
Those are my favourites too!