I think there may be a running theme to my birthday celebration with the Stupidgirl because we had steamboat last year as well (at Imperial Treasures Steamboat @TOS). Since then, i've discovered another steamboat place which is way better and that is Jpot at Vivocity. It is the same style of steamboat as Imperial Treasure's which has the funny dips.
There is only 1 way to have steamboat and that is in the comfort of an air-conditioned restaurant, with fresh seafood and quality meat, attentive servers and ala carte style. The Marina steamboat days are long behind us. Please do not ask me out for steamboat buffet at Bugis or anything similar to that thanks. I'm not being atas, it's just that comfort is more my style.
Any meal with the Stupidgirl is bound to end up with us over-ordering and then over-eating. She insisted on having the dinner set (we chose Set B $78++ for 2 person) because she wanted the seafood platter (live prawns, sliced red grouper, cuttlefish, scallops, hand made prawn and fish balls, har gau and siew mai) which costs $32 on its own. The set is kinda what you see in the above picture and comes with 2 different meat items. We went with Beef Short Rib and Marinated Pork (both my favorites). There's also a choice of deep fried specialty (fried beancurd skin/fried fish skin), a vegetable platter and noodles/rice together with our choice of broth (the Jpot superior broth is the best!) Sounds like a lot already? Indeed! But that didn't stop her from ordering MORE!
Our Steamboat set.
Really tender and well marinated pork. I would pick this over the chicken or beef. A small quail egg is provided and i would crack it over the pork before throwing the meat into the soup.
Our Seafood & Dim sum platter. Only the freshest ingredients from the Jumbo people who know their seafood. I'm so glad they kinda killed the prawns before serving to us. IT served us jumping prawns on skewers. So torturous to watch them and then kill them ourselves. Really sweet and crunchy fresh prawns. Great scallops. Everything was just so perfect.
Beef Short Rib, thinly sliced, cooked Shabu-shabu style. Just look at the marvelous marbling on the meat. Perfect mix of fat and meat. Good thing Stupidgirl doesn't take beef so i had the entire plate to myself!Side order of Jumbo Pork Ball, freshly made and mixed with herbs like chinese parsley (yucks) but somehow it tasted pretty good after boiling in the broth. You can make many little pork balls from the mother of all pork balls.
Side order of Fish noodle. This is a novelty i guess but it's not fantastic. I find the 'noodle' too fluffy and airy and you don't taste much of the paste. It's kinda like eating marshmallow.Other than these, we also ordered fish maw, sliced Kurobuta pork and tau pok. Madness.
And this has got to be the reason why i love JPOT and IT so much- fried beancurd skin. We first had it at IT and the restaurant manager taught us how to eat it the right way (i think it's a shanghainese thing?)
Step 1: Pick up the roll and quickly dip a part of it into the hot soup (for 1 second).
Step 2: Dip it into the special sauce which has a soy sauce based (follow instructions at sauce table).
Step 3: Devour it!
Happy me! This is an orgasm of flavors and textures. I'm salivating just thinking of it.. Drools.
Playing with food as usual. Kids, do not learn from me. I'm just trying to make sure we finish all the veggies. I'm the uh.. Veggie fairy?
The 2 gluttons of the day. We ate like there's no tomorrow. The other patrons probably thought we were having some buffet. Dinner was a 2.5h long affair. When the restaurant manager handed us our bill, he was shocked. He couldn't believe that we ordered that much food and we actually finished almost all of it. And the madness continued after dinner when the stupidgirl said she wanted desserts......
And we ended up at Swensens for their Earthquake! She simply refused to let me order anything else and demanded that i help her finish the ice cream. :((
The ice cream that killed us but was so sinfully awesome. Brought back fond memories of younger days when we would stuff ourselves on ice cream and not give a shit about calories. Sigh.
The night did not end there. We went for karaoke together for the first time. Mind you i was still coughing and croaking and by the end of the night/morning, my voice was practically gone. It was quite an experience for the both of us. It's amazing how much noise and laughter 2 girls can generate. :) So yeah, the big bang to the birthday week, spent with one of my bestest friend.
Thanks to all the wonderful and awesome friends who remembered this important day. I really appreciate all the emails from overseas and different timezones, all the messages on facebook and WhatsApp and sms and calls.. I love you guys. Thanks for making this an awesome birthday!
1 HarbourFront Walk, #01-53
Vivocity Lobby F
Tel: +65 6273 3536
Daily: 12pm - 3pm, 6pm - 11pm
Weekends and PH: 12pm - 11pm