A GOOD steamboat for me is one with clear soup, steeped from slow cooking with chicken or pork bones and is MSG-free. The ingredients for this steamboat must all be fresh and home-made, so that the soup is infused with all their natural flavours as they are added to it.

The HK style steamboat I had at Elegant Inn in Kuala Lumpur recently was exactly this. We had a traditional pork bone stone bubbling in a claypot on the gas burner on the table. Platters of deluxe fresh ingredients to be added to it included dragon-tiger garoupa (loong fu parn), Iberico pork slices, sea crystal prawns, fish paste, chicken paste, golden fried fish curd, cuttlefish pork balls, watercress dumplings and crunchy Chinese nachos. 

Of course, there was an assortment of vegetables like enoki mushrooms, romaine lettuce, sweet corn and tomatoes, together with black fungus and soft tofu. An array of ingredients was presented to make our own dips, such as chilli oil, shallot oil, fresh garlic, spring onions, chillies, fresh coriander and crushed peanuts. With such fresh deluxe ingredients, all that was needed was some shallot oil, spring onions, coriander and a splash of superior soy sauce.

Appetisers were served at the start of this sumptuous steamboat dinner – smoky prawn cake with lotus root and wok-fried chicken with basil on organic tofu. We moved from these delicious bites to the E.I. Salt & Pepper Fried Head and Bones of the dragon tiger garoupa. 

The live fish weighed 1.1kg and, apart from the sashimi fillets gleaned from it for the steamboat, the fleshy head and bones were good for deep frying and tossing in salt, pepper, chilli and crispy garlic. This classic Elegant Inn cooking style worked so well with the bony parts of the fish, rendering them crispy and tasty.

The fish paste, chicken paste and cuttlefish pork balls went into the steamboat first, distilling their flavours into the stock. The cuttlefish pork balls stood out, bouncy and sweet, as did the delightful golden fried fish curd. From there, we put in the goodies in no particular order. 

For me, the super fresh dragon tiger garoupa was the star of the show. The thick slices of the raw fish, took just a couple of minutes to firm up the flesh. Just a dip into soy shallot oil dip was all it needed. I loved it.

Of course, the thin Iberico pork slices that cooked fast in the hot broth tasted luscious, too. The stock had got better by now, developing some complexity. So we dredged the crispy Chinese nachos (made of soy sheets) through the lovely stock or we crunched on them. They were so good; we couldn’t get enough of them.

The vegetables went in, and the HK E Fu Noodles, and this was the perfect ending to our steamboat. Our young friends at the next table had opted to add steamed rice and an egg to the remaining soup. They had also cleverly saved some of the meat for it and it tasted so good!

I liked that after such a satisfying steamboat, there were desserts – Chilled Osmanthus Wolfberry Cake and Sour Plum Toast with Natural Peach Amber. Steamboat is considered a heaty meal, so these yummy desserts will cool you down. 

Elegant Inn offers three set menus for steamboat, with prices set for four or six people. For the “Simply” menu, it’s RM488 for four, and RM688 for six, with appetisers like Stuffed Organic Beancurd with Basil Chicken and Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Light Spicy Sauce. You have a choice of the pork bone broth or parsley and century egg fish stock. Seafood would be garoupa fish slice, sea crystal prawns, and half shell scallops with roe. There is Spanish Olive Oil Pork, Marinated Chicken Thigh Meat, and home-made delicacies like fresh fish paste, cuttlefish pork balls, homemade fried fish curd and Chinese nachos. Desserts are the same as we had.

The other two menus feature deluxe items like dragon-tiger garoupa, lobster, Korean abalone and Iberico pork with variations in pricing. The steamboat is available from Tuesday till June 16.

Elegant Inn HK Cuisine is on 2nd floor, Menara Hap Seng, Jalan P. Ramlee, 50250 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03 2070 9399 & 603-6737 9399. – April 20, 2019.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.