Charcoal steamboat

I love steamboat. Not sure why. I don’t mind the waiting for the soup to boil, nor the waiting for the food to cook. Maybe steamboat is not all about eating. I can pause awhile, chat with friends, let my food digest a little and then continue eating again. Not to mention it’s lots of fun especially when I have great company.

During my recent trip to Cameron Highlands, my friends introduced us to this Highland Restaurant at Brinchang, that serves steamboat in a rather unheard of kinda way. The steamboat is heated using charcoal instead of using the conventional way with electric or gas.
I have never seen or heard about this kind of steamboat before. The blackened ‘chimney’ in the middle is where the hot, burning charcoals are and the soot will fall onto the ‘mat’ made of newspaper below. The charcoal gives the soup an aromatic taste. What a creative idea!
This restaurant serves the sweetest steamboat soup ever, although they have only one kind of soup and its cabbage tasted so good with the soup. I really recommend it anytime and would love to come again if I have another chance to visit Cameron Highlands again.

A word of caution though. Don’t touch the ‘chimney’ with your bare hands or you’ll get burnt, real bad .