Chuan Yang Ji Mutton Soup Steamboat On Balestier Road

It’s been less than a month since the Rama Thai Seafood closed its doors, I’ve not even finished the blog entry and there’s a new eating place at the very same location. Organized by the famous eslim of the Makansutra forums (still the definitive food forum of Singapore), it was a splendid way to end a hectic week.

I arrived late to find that most of the appetizers were gone except for the Butter Beans and Honey-glazed mutton. The butter beans were excellent with a slight buttery (who’d guess?) taste and a mealy texture.

I was asked to try the mutton soup before they added anything. It was a milk-colored broth with tangkwei, wolfberries and other secret herbs which is good for yang (in more ways than one). It was very light-tasting with a subtle finish of mutton at the back of the throat that was enhanced with the grassy contrast of chopped spring onions.

As an excellent write-up by TTC about our visit can be found here, I’ll just give you a summary and photos.

For me, it was the tendons, tripe and mutton that made that dinner extra special. I love tendons and tripe. The textures and the way they absorb the flavors of the slowly thickening soup is what I love about steamboats and hotpots.

We were cautioned by Gina the manager about adding the mutton ribs into the soup too early as it imparts a strong mutton taste because of the mutton fat melting into the soup. Of course, we threw her caution into the wind as we threw in the mutton ribs in with gleeful abandon.

They were delicious. Especially with the Chili oil dip that enhanced the sweetness of the meat. The sesame paste dip, even when augmented with fermented beancurd was a little weak but it went well with the fish maw, another favorite of mine when it comes to steamboat.

The other must-try-but-looks-weird thing is the fish slices. TTC took time to explain that when you add the Chinese characters for “Goat” and “Fish” you get the Chinese character “Fresh” which is not, according to him, a state or condition of food (in this case) but a special taste description.

Speaking of description, “Light” and “Clean-tasting” are hardly the terms you’d usually use for mutton soup, but “Light” and “Clean-tasting” is exactly what Chuan Yang Ji’s mutton soup steamboat is all about. There’s no after-dinner feeling of heaviness or “heatiness”.

In the end, we were sated not surfeited.

Chuan Yang Ji is definitely the place I’ll visit more in the future to get my mutton soup and hot pot fix. However, this is a very new restaurant and they’ve not gotten into their groove yet, as such while they were hard-working and enthusiastic, they were hard put to cater to 4 tables of people, i.e. service is slow, inconsistent and ad-hoc.

Do be patient as the food here really is not baaaaad.

Mutton Soup Steambot is at 432 Balestier Road #01-434, Public Mansion (just next to Jalan Rama Rama), Tel: 90033244.

Posted on 16th Jun 2008 in Food and Drink

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There Are 2 Comments

Crunchasarus Rex commented on June 17, 2008 at 7:24 am

Never had mutton soup steamboat before.. but i’m game to try it.. will be on my list..

Ivan commented on June 24, 2008 at 12:01 am

@Crunchasarus Rex: That’s great, let me know how it was!

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