Fatties attack!

A few days ago, we went to have steamboat / hot pot at a local restaurant. The restaurant belongs to an acquaintance of my mother who is an inspector with the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) which just goes to show you our police could actually find other means of increasing their income if they really wanted to. But that’s another blog post 😀

It was my fourth visit at the inspector’s restaurant, and my first where the inspector himself provided vegetarian-friendly options. On my first three visits, the inspector was kind enough to allow us to bring our own vegetarian fare because his selection was pretty limited. Well, what do you expect in a town of 104,000 people, a thriving vegetarian scene? I know I don’t expect much in a place where I am scolded by a lady selling chicken rice, for only ordering the rice!

Anyway, the verdict on the hot pot? It’s good – herbal, light and easy on the stomach, and not *heaty at all. I put that down to the fact it’s a rural restaurant, so MSG isn’t a key ingredient in the menu but I could be wrong. Of course, you can make your own hot pot and it’s pretty easy to do (I was featured in a dummies guide once!) but why do that when there’s a healthy version available? Unless of course you live outside of Malaysia and hot pots aren’t a regular thing. In which case, get yourself a camping stove, a shallow, wide pot, check out the recipe here and you’ve got yourself a hot pot right there.

If you’re in Bentong, check out his restaurant and support him! In fact, support any member of the RMP in their entrepreneurial initiatives…maybe there’s good karma involved and you might get stopped at fewer roadblocks 😉

*a Chinese term referring to foods or substances which raise your internal body energy / ‘temperature’. Examples of heaty foods include ginger, garlic, onion, pepper, pumpkin, The opposite of heatiness is cooling – examples of these foods include watermelon, barley, old cucumber, white radish, Chinese herbal teas, etc. When you’re healthy, your body has the perfect balance between heatiness and cooling

Kecharians