Hotpot at Shu Xiang Fang

[khiemtran]

Saturday lunch, and we're meeting up with friends in Hurstville for some Sichuanese hotpot at Shu Xiang Fang...



We've ordered a "half and half" hotpot with two separate soups. The middle section is a fiery Sichuanese oil based broth, while the outer has a much milder fish soup, for those who want something a bit less spicy.



We've chosen the "seafood and meat" buffet option, so we pay a fixed price for whatever ingredients we order. Instead of a menu, there's an ipad which you can use to select whatever you want. Here, we're just waiting for the soups to boil. You can see the ingredients we've ordered on the multi-tiered stand to the left.



When the soups boil, put the ingredients in in whatever order you feel like. Just make sure that no-one takes anything out again until the pot has come back to the boil for a few minutes. Here you can see sliced pork belly (great with the spicy broth and then dipped in a bowl of creamy sesame sauce) and sliced chicken. We also had a selection of interesting fish balls, mushrooms and vegetables, along with sliced fish and tofu skin.



I thought we'd over-ordered, but after three rounds, everything was gone...



As you can see, the broths have gone down quite a long way. Large amounts of water and tea have also been consumed and much sweating has been induced by the Sichuan peppers.



The sign above the door. The character on the far right (蜀, pronounced shǔ) refers to the ancient kingdom of Shu as in a modern abbreviation for Sichuan. The one in the centre (香, pronounced xiāng) means "fragrant". The one on the far left (you might notice the sign is actually written right-to-left in the old style) (坊, pronounced fāng) means neighbourhood or urban subdivision.

Comments

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

That is one impressive hotpot set up!

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, they've made it quite convenient for non-Chinese too, especially with the ipad ordering. It just hasn't flashed over to the general population yet. I guess one day it will be the next "yum cha"...

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

That looks spectacular.

Dumb question: Is Chinese no longer written right to left? I have as much oral/aural Mandarin as Pimsleur can give me, but I am illiterate, and likely to remain so....

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It's written left-to-right nowadays in most places, except when they deliberately want a traditional feel (like an old-style restaurant or a street arch - plus older signs of course). I did see some modern-looking street signs in Taipei about a decade ago now that were still written right-to-left - I believe they switched a bit later than the mainland, but it stil would have been much earlier than that. You'll also see signs still using the traditional characters on the mainland when they want a more traditional aesthetic.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This style of eating--where there's a bunch of cut-up ingredients and a boiling broth into which you put them--was a favorite of a French friend of mine when we were both studying in Japan. It's great for groups, like your group; it's very convivial.

So with the two broths, how did it work: people could choose to put ingredients into either of the two, and then ladle out the pieces into their own bowls?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

You can do it that way, but I just put a mix of different ingredients in in batches (roughly half into each broth) and people just fished around for whatever they wanted...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That works!