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HKMagazine_1129
HKMagazine_1129
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Dining<br />
Our Top<br />
Pot Dealers<br />
‘Tis the season for hotpot. Give your food a slam dunk into the hottest<br />
bubbling broths in town, say Xavier Ng and Leslie Yeh<br />
C&C Hot Pot Factory<br />
C & C Hot Pot ( 雞 蟹 煲 ) in Shek Tong Tsui got its name from<br />
two of its most famous items—chicken and crab. At this small<br />
establishment you can choose one, or both, of their specialties,<br />
and top off your pot with premium ingredients such as hand-sliced<br />
beef, diamond and razor clams and homemade dumplings. The<br />
unremarkable setting might not be the most eye-catching joint in<br />
the increasingly food saturated Western district, but it’s worth a try<br />
for its fair prices and quality ingredients.<br />
G/F, 384 Queen’s Rd. West, Shek Tong Tsui, 2548-9881.<br />
Go Big or Go Home<br />
Lik Kei Hot Pot ( 力 奇 火 鍋 ) is well-known for its fresh ingredients—<br />
and its massive portions. The minute you sit down at this Tai Kok Tsui<br />
eatery, you’ll notice that every table has a big pot piled high with<br />
tomatoes, corn and plenty of pork bones for a rich, umami-heavy<br />
broth. Fresh and affordable seafood ranges from abalone to still-live<br />
shrimps and there’s a good selection of meat such as tender wagyu<br />
beef to appease dedicated carnivores.<br />
G/F, 53 Kok Cheung St., Tai Kok Tsui, 2789-3932.<br />
Spice is Nice<br />
Spice lovers rejoice: If you can handle the heat, San Xi Lou serves<br />
up a mouth-numbing mala hotpot that you’ll be feeling the effects of<br />
for hours after. Ingredients are high quality but it’s the ass-kicking broth<br />
that has us coming back time and time again. Can’t stand the heat?<br />
Go for a split pot and get one-half “miraculous chicken” instead.<br />
For everyone else, we say: Bring on the fire…<br />
7/F, Coda Plaza, 51 Garden Rd., Central, 2838-8811.<br />
Fusion Flavors<br />
If you’re looking<br />
for a fancier hotpot,<br />
following the Michelin<br />
man is a good place to<br />
start. Megan’s Kitchen<br />
is one of the few that’s<br />
made it into the Bib<br />
Gourmand section for<br />
five consecutive years in<br />
the influential guide. Offering<br />
a more fine dining setting, the<br />
restaurant serves an innovative<br />
range of soup bases, including out-ofthe-box<br />
creations such as tom yum goong<br />
cappuccino, or tomato and crab soup with<br />
a soufflé finish. They’ve just recently rolled<br />
out an Italian-inspired menu, with creative items<br />
including a Parma ham consommé soup base and<br />
cuttlefish balls with minced Parma ham in XO sauce. Italian-hotpot<br />
fusion? Sure, why not…<br />
5/F, Lucky Centre, 165-171 Wan Chai Rd., Wan Chai, 2866-8305.<br />
Drunken Dunkin’<br />
The selling point at brand new TST joint The Drunken Pot is that you<br />
dunk a “sake bomb” into the broth—hence the moniker—to give your<br />
hotpot an extra boozy kick. From the brains behind Central’s Lai Bun<br />
Fu, The Drunken Pot oozes cool with modern, brazen art adorning<br />
the walls and a bangin’ soundtrack in the background. Go for the<br />
signature 5-in-1 pot, which lets you cook a variety of premium meats,<br />
jet-fresh sushi and imported seafood in your choice of satay, sesame,<br />
crab, Sichuan or the aforementioned sake-infused broth. Venture off<br />
the traditional path for some of the best items on the menu, from<br />
plump tri-colored xiaolongbao prepared five ways to the deep-fried<br />
and downright addictive homemade tofu.<br />
2/F, 8 Observatory Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2321-9038.<br />
Posh Pot<br />
For hotel quality hotpot, Canton Pot at Lodgewood by L’hotel puts<br />
a contemporary spin on this classic winter warmer. With VIP rooms<br />
and outstanding service, who says going for hotpot can’t be a classy<br />
occasion (although maybe ask for a bib)? Go for the special lobster<br />
surf and turf hot pot set ($988 for two), which is a luxurious east meets<br />
west affair: think lobster, abalone, US oysters, Australian organic beef<br />
ribeye and American marbled beef cubes.<br />
2/F, Lodgewood by L’Hotel Mongkok Hong Kong,<br />
1131 Canton Rd., Mong Kok, 3968-7888.<br />
Hotpots and Hotnots<br />
Follow these rules to avoid being the only hotpot noob at the dinner table:<br />
• Add your food only when the broth is boiling. We know you’re hungry and<br />
everything looks delicious, but you have to exercise a little patience if you don’t<br />
want to spend the next day hugging the toilet. This particularly applies when you<br />
top up the broth in the middle of the meal.<br />
• Use two sets of chopsticks—one for handling all the raw food and the other for<br />
eating. This avoids cross-contamination.<br />
• If you’re trying to cook a smaller item, put it into one of the small soup strainers<br />
before dunking it to avoid 10 minutes of fruitless fishing for that single shrimp<br />
or delicious hunk of meat.<br />
• Never, ever, , slide a whole plate of beef into the pot at once. This overcooks<br />
the whole thing and is the worst hotpot crime imaginable.<br />
There’s broth for<br />
all kinds at The Drunken Pot<br />
Go spicy and beefy at<br />
San Xi Lou<br />
18 HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016