Ah Pang Steamboat Seafood – Remarkable Old School Steamboat!

While I was scrolling through Instagram, I chanced upon a video that showed an elderly man cooking over a stove, whipping up zi char dishes in his trusty Chinese wok. Upon further research, I discovered that every video on the Instagram page featured the same man, in the same outfit, cooking up a variety of zi char favourites.

He piqued my interest and I knew I had to find out more about him and try his food. And that was how I discovered Ah Pang Steamboat Seafood.

Located in Mei Ling Food Center, Ah Pang Steamboat Seafood occupies the corner two stalls on the second floor. When we arrived, I saw the star himself, Ah Pang, standing over the wok and cooking up a storm in his trademark white t-shirt and red apron.

On how he started cooking, Ah Pang, who is 74 this year, shared with us that that his culinary journey began since young. His friends were all cooking, and that positive peer influence grew on him. He has since run Ah Pang Steamboat Seafood at its current location for over 20 years! The stall offers both steamboat and zi char dishes. 

There is only chicken broth offered for the steamboat base and all ingredients are priced based on the number of pax. We ordered a steamboat set for four pax ($40), and had quite a decent amount of ingredients, such as sliced fish, chicken meat, greens, . We loved the chicken broth, which was sweet and flavourful even on its own. Ah Pang shared with us that they do not use any MSG in their chicken broth, and the flavours were all derived from actual ingredients.

We also tried some of his popular zi char dishes, such as the Hotplate Oyster Egg ($12/$16/$20). I watched Ah Pang as he whipped up the dish, and I was very impressed at his nimbleness and strength to constantly lift the wok to ensure even heating throughout. The result of all that hard work was a plate of fluffy eggs, topped with large pieces of plump and juicy oysters in a thick and savoury sauce. The whole dish tasted great. The oysters were fresh, eggs were well seasoned and the sauce did not overpower the natural umami of the oysters.

Another signature dish would be the Salted Egg Pork Ribs ($10/$14/$18). However, I couldn’t taste much of the salted egg and instead found that it was overall more sweet than salty. The dish was a bit on the drier side, perhaps because most of the sauce had already been absorbed by the pieces of pork ribs. The dish was unfortunately also lacking wok hei.

Nonetheless I still think it’s great to be able to go back to the old school way of having steamboat, amidst the many steamboat and hotpot restaurants all around us. Furthermore, how often are we able to enjoy steamboat accompanied by an array of zi char delights? Ah Pang is also a friendly guy, and the open kitchen concept at his stall means that you’ll be able to witness him tossing the wok with his fine culinary showmanship.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.