Have you ever experience a phase where you kept going back to the same restaurant within a period of time? This happened to us earlier this year, we went back to Restaurant De Hunan at Kuchai Lama for at least 5 times within a month.
Hunan cuisine, also known as Xiang cuisine, is one of the Eight Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine and is well known for its hot spicy flavour, fresh aroma and deep colour. Not to be mistaken with Szechuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine is not numbing and the common cooking techniques include stewing, frying, pot-roasting, braising, and smoking.
So when an invitation came from their sister restaurant, De Hunan Hotpot @ Fahrenheit 88, we could not say no. The Fahrenheit outlet is the first De Hunan outlet that serves hot pot, and I have to say that the dining environment is a big more up scale and comfortable here.
Once seated, we were served with 4 different types of side dishes – Seaweed, Fu-Chok, Pickled Pig’s ear and Pickled Cucumber. My favourite was the pickled pig’s ear with thin crunchy cartilaginous core coated by a thick layer of skin on both sides.
Hot Pot takes the centre stage here. De Hunan serves 4 types of soup base and come in two sizes – Fish Head Soup, Pork Bone Soup, Duck Soup and Chicken Soup. The large pot for 4 pax is priced at RM50, the small pot per pax is priced at RM15.
We tried the spicy Duck Soup and Pork Bone Soup. The spicy duck soup with chunky duck meat was really addictive. It was hot and spicy, but that does not deter us from having more. The pork bone soup was the crowd’s favourite that night. This broth is milky white and unctuous, thanks to pork marrow bones and fat cooked for hours.
The sky is the limit when it comes to hotpot ingredients at De Hunan.
We loved the fresh meat slices and hand made meat balls a lot.
What got us hooked onto Restaurant De Hunan – their selection of authentic Hunan dishes. These are the dishes that we ordered repeatedly over our various visit to their restaurant.
Stir-fried Beijing Cabbage with pork
Do not judge a book from its cover. The crunchy cabbage were cooked just right, with a slight hint of smokiness that makes this my favourite dish in De Hunan. The pork slices worked it magic around the cabbages too, certain pieces were charred while some were still fatty and succulent.
The deep fried spicy chicken with dried chili is kampungboy’s favourite. The chicken pieces were deep fried till crispy and well seasoned with various Chinese spices. A perfect beer food!
The Hunan Hot Spicy Steamed Fish head topped with plenty of dried, fresh and fermented Hunan chilies is a signature dish here. The broth is best eaten with Shanghainese noodles that remind us of angel hair pasta.
Braised Pork Shoulder is a dish that really showcase the Hunanese chef’s skill. It was braised to perfection, as the meat was fork tender while the skin still remain chewy and gelatinous.
It was our first time trying the lamb skewers but we were sold immediately. We kept ordering the lamb on our subsequent visit. The toppings of chopped onions, chillies and a secret sauce went really well with our bowls of white rice. The lamb remained succulent and tender even after some grilling action.
Our sweet ending came in the form of homemade potato pancakes dunked in condensed milk. It was crispy on the outside, soft and powdery on the inside.
We also enjoyed having the golden sweet potato with honey. It was fun to dunk them in cold water, resulting in a crispy honey coated exterior.
It is not surprising that De Hunan is one of our favourite Chinese restaurants in town. The food is consistently good with reasonable pricing.
DeHunan Hotpot
Lot 2.05, Level 2 Fahrenheit88,
No 179, Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
03-2141 3469
http://dehunan.com/
Other Branches:
Restaurant De Hunan
No 2, Jalan Kuchai Maju 6, off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
58200 Kuala Lumpur
03-7987 9318
Opens: 11am-11pm
Restaurant De Hunan
No. 42, Jalan Puteri 2/4, Bandar Puteri.
47100 Puchong, Selangor Darul Ehsan.
03-8063 9318
Opens: 11am-11pm
