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A little odd tasting, given how I am so accustomed to the usual mala flavours. This was like an odd combination of tomyum and mala, with a tinge of sourness in it. Also, it wasnāt as spicy as the usual mala with medium spice but still sufficient to start your nose running.
This place sells one of the best mala tang as unlike the usual which comes with a thick layer of chili oil, they have less oil and are less spicy. It is quite expensive as 100g cost $2.88, regardless of meat or vegetable.
There are 3 other soup bases to choose from: pickled vegetable, tomato and pork bone.
I found this little mala spot next to the popular Aqua S, where I got myself a tomato soup base with various ingredients commonly found at mala stalls.
I got a cheese ball and I think itās pretty unique! I donāt think mala stalls have cheese balls, especially one with cheese lava oozing from the core.
The soup was savoury and thick, and there is a distinct tomato flavour to it. The only thing is that itās slightly salty so I got pretty thirsty afterwards.
For friends who donāt take spicy food, they have 3 other choices of soup base: pickled veggie, tomato and pork bone.
Here comes the soup version of mala xiang guo (éŗ»č¾£é¦é ). This is unlike mala steamboat (éŗ»č¾£ē«é ) which usually comes with a layer of chilli oil floating on top. There areĀ 4 types of broths available - Mala (éŗ»č¾£), Chinese Pickled Vegetables (é øč), Pork Bone (ēŖéŖØ)Ā andĀ Tomato.Ā IngredientsĀ comes in a variety ofĀ meat, seafood and vegetables that goes for $2.88 per 100g.
I liked their thick and chewy noodles that looked like é øč¾£ē². The normal level mala broth comes with acceptable amount of heat and itās drinkable - similar to those I had in Taiwan from é©¬č¾£é”¶ēŗ§éø³éøÆē«é while pickled vegetables broth is sour and spicy.
Thanks @burpple for the invite and @gongyuansg for hosting!
Iāve had a few other ma la tangs before and Gong Yuanās has been the better one so far! I went with the medium spice and unlike the others Iāve tried that werenāt spicy, I liked the good heat and tingling numbness this had. It also wasnāt too oily and was drinkable with its pork bone broth base that gave a light creaminess to it. This kind of ma la tangs are not as popular yet, so it would be good to manage expectations that its mala is different from the more common steamboat kind. The choice of ingredients are the typical ones you would see in mlxg stalls, but go for their thick sweet potato noodles (the kind usually used in é øč¾£ē² suan la fen) as it absorbed the broth well. Apart from ma la, they also have pork bone and pickled vegetable broths.
Itās kinda pricey at $2.88 per 100g across the variety of ingredients you can pick from, especially since I usually stick to the veg selection with my mlxg. Also, Gong Yuan doesnāt seem to have the practice of draining out the water from your bowl of chosen ingredients, so just make a mental note to shake off the water when youāre kiap-ing them, or it would add on to the final weight.
Tried the mala soup belong Seoi Gor! It was $2.88/100g regardless of it being vege, mushroom, seafood or meat! Soup was tasty but felt like there was lots of msg and it didnāt have the numb taste but instead, just a good tomyum which had a lot of milk!!! Food took a while to come too but worth a try!