Ω over the moon: 聚一堂 G-YiTang Steamboat @ Taipan USJ Subang Jaya

Steamboat has always been one of my favourite meals, not only because of its nutritional value but also the meaning behind it- having a good time of gathering with family and friends. I am glad to have sampled this new steamboat outlet which was opened a month ago. The emphasis on gathering around a table with piping hot steamboat meal reflects in the name of this restaurant. For those who can’t read Chinese, it can be quite challenging to find this place so you have to recognize this shop by having a look at the picture below :P

Comfortable yet relatively spacious family-styled dining area, nothing fancy that is suitable for casual gatherings.

For an enjoyable steamboat meal, the basic criteria would be the broth/soup. Curry soup seems to be the selling point of G-Yi Tang. Majority of the customers love the combination of Curry and Tom Yam. I went for Pork Bone soup and Curry soup instead.

Curry soup- Delicious even on its own. First sip tells it all- fragrant curry spices with suitable thick soup texture. I would say it is not spicy at all for a high spicy tolerance level person like me, yet the creaminess in the beginning of cooking time warrants further sips, followed by light coconut aroma that was not overwhelming. Towards the end of cooking time with all the steamboat ingredients being cooked together, the texture of soup gets even creamier similar to pumpkin soup, furthermore it was not too salty for the palate. I was quite sceptical at the beginning as I was worried that I can’t take heavy curry soup with large amount of coconut milk, but I was totally wrong.

Pork Bone Soup- After 6-7 hours of boiling with chef’s hardwork, it results in a slightly milky colour as well as infusion of pork bone flavours. The sweetness came from other ingredients such as Chinese cabbage, yam sticks, corn and long green onion. The yam sticks was seriously good stuff. If you know me well, I love my dosage of really good yam bites. According to the owner of G Yi Tang, yam from Thailand is used resulting in a very compact yet moreish texture, unlike those powdery ones that seriously lacks in quality. Basic broth done well and further enhanced by meat slices, meatballs, vegetables and others introduced later in this blog post.

While waiting for the soups to boil, we started with few types of appetizers.

Deep fried shrimp dumpling- Juicy minced pork with chunky prawns encased within crunchy dumpling skin, they are definitely not stingy on the stuffings. The overall flavour was very well accepted and wholesome, one piece is certainly not enough.

Deep fried stuffed meatball- Imagine biting onto bouncy meatball with the meat juices ‘exploding’ inside your mouth, it was a rather special experience. Again, the minced pork meat stuffings was well marinated.

Deep fried chicken wing- I prefer a more flavourful version of this, say Nam Yu fried chicken wing? But it’s just a matter of personal preference. Nevertheless the inside was juicy enough and skin was quite crispy.

Sauces/ condiments to choose from:

Clockwise from top left: Gui Lin sauce, fried garlic, Thai style chilli sauce & Sang Har sauce.

Gui Lin sauce (top left)- a spicy mixture of dried shrimps, fried onions, sesame. I can hardly find this elsewhere, perhaps GYT is the first to introduce this. This crunchy and fragrant sauce goes well with almost every steamboat ingredients, perfect for a spicy food lover like me.

Sang Har sauce has nothing to do with prawns, in fact it is spicier than Thai style chilli sauce. Overall I love their homemade dipping sauces that goes well with their fresh steamboat ingredients.

Mixed set for one pax- a variety of ingredients in one go

New Zealand lamb slices- best dipped in Curry soup, all you get is nothing but awesome curry lamb slices.

Pork slices- Lean slices for the health conscious folks.

Pork roll needle mushroom

3 assorted homemade meatballs- cuttlefish balls, pork balls, fish balls

No complaints on the texture as they were really firm to the bite and of course genuinely fresh. I love how the chopped cuttlefish pieces provided chewy texture instead of it being just wholly made from cuttlefish paste.

Shrimp dumpling- fat dumplings stuffed with delicious minced pork and chopped prawns, just as good as the fried version.

Ready for a seafood feast?

Prawns

Abalone fish slices

Sliced fish

Chinese wine drumstick- I felt that the Chinese wine did not infuse much into the chicken meat, perhaps need a longer marinade time.

Cheese Tofu

Ling Zhi mushrooms, Hong Kong Choy Sam, Chinese spinach & Romaine lettuce

Can hardly find a brown spot on the leafy greens explains how fresh they are.

Herbal Tea (1 jug for 10 glasses)- Essentially Loh Han Guo herbal drink, with shredded winter melon and longan. Very refreshing drink yet the sweetness level is just right, perfect to end our meal especially after drinking the tasty syok curry soup.

Check out their menu for more other ingredients offered