Red Chilli

Simple name, but Hong La Qiao (meaning “red chilli” in Mandarin) serves not the typical local Chinese dishes. With a history spans over 8 years, they serves one type of authentic Chinese cuisine that most of the locals branded it as one of the spiciest food around: Sichuan.

The first time I heard about ma la or ma lat in Cantonese, someone told me it’s from Taiwan. In fact, ma la orginated from Sichuan province of central China, one of the poorest province in China history to cover up the smell of rotten meat and trigger the body to produce warmth during winter. The name is formed from two Chinese characters; ma (numbing) and la (spicy), referring to the sensation on the mouth after taking the sauce.

For those who loves ma la steamboat, you can get it here and best of all, you can customise the ingredients that you wanna have with the steamboat such as tiger prawns, luncheon meat, home made dumplings, the usual fish balls, crab, Chinese mushroom, wood ear fungus, lotus root, enoki mushrooms, beancurd and so on. If you’re not the hardcore Sichuan steamboat fan, go for the Yin Yang steamboat which is made of half ma la and half herbal broth.

But we came here for the Soo Toong Rou (Soo Toong pork). I did some research on this and it seems to be the same dish called Tung Po Rou (Tung Po pork) which is named after revered Song Dynasty poet, artist and calligrapher Su Dongpo. The pork belly has about 4 layers, being the top layer is actually pork fat. The pork was braised with a special gravy mixture for few hours till the meat are chopsticks-tender and most of the fat has been rendered. The result is a very tender and juicy meat with gelatinous texture. Very sinful indeed!

Another Sichuan dish, Ma Po beancurd which is cooked with imported Sichuan spicy bean paste, crushed peppercorns, ginger, some grounded pork and Chinese wine.

Fancy something soupy and not spicy? Beancurd broth might be just the right one for you. Clear broth prepared with thinly sliced white beancurd, crabmeat sticks, black fungus, ginger, coriander, shrimp and egg, it was a great comfort food.

The La Tze Ji (Chicken with Dry Chillies) was spicier than we expected it to be. Tossed with dry chillies, Sichuan peppercorns, spring onion, ginger and sesame seeds, the chicken were crispy at the outside while remain tender and juicy inside. The only letdown of the dish are the annoying small bones.

Hong La Qiao can be quite noisy as Chinese visitors dominated the restaurant during dinner peak hours, so you might want to come early. You do not need to brush up your Mandarin language before coming as the waitresses are local Chinese.

Restoran Hong La Qiao
No. 53 – 55,
Jalan Changkat Thambi Dollah,
Off Jalan Pudu,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2141 0078 / 03-2141 8078
Fax: 03-2148 8078

Business Hour: 10.30am – 10.30pm
*A la carte order available from 10.30am – 3pm and 5pm – 10pm.
Only steamboat is available in between 3pm – 5pm.
Last order at 10pm.

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