Hojoho | Huang Ji Huang | 黄记煌 三汁焖锅

On Vesak day, 1 June 2015, which was a public holiday in Singapore, our family members of six (five adults and one child) took our lunch in Hojoho Restaurant | Huang Ji Huang | 黄记煌 in Jurong East Westgate for Three Sauce Simmer Pot | 三汁焖锅. It was recommended by my brother who had tried it before.

We arrived at 12 noon and just one or two tables were taken up. I was a bit surprised because it was lunch time and a Public Holiday so I expected to see a reasonable amount of crowd.

Hojoho was located in the basement and hence, less crowded. The customers in this shopping centre basement were rather scarce as compared to the higher floors. More patrons rolled in gradually around 1 pm.

The interior and lighting of the restaurant were rather comfortable and cosy looking. I was happy because there was not much crowd as I preferred a quieter environment.

Huang Ji Huang | 黄记煌 三汁焖锅 Three Sauce Simmer Pot originated from the “Spicy Fish Sauce 香辣汁鱼” in the Imperial Cuisine of Food during the Qing Dynasty.

The first Huang Ji Huang shop was set up in 1998 in the Xuan Wu Meng street in Beijing by the Founder, Mr Huang Geng. In May 2008, he established Huang Ji Huang company in Beijing and became the Chairman of the Board.

In a short span of time, the company opened several restaurants in many parts of China and expanded its business internationally amounting to more than 500 restaurants.

Over the years, it has owned a lot of awards and recognitions which place the company in a very marketable and trustworthy position.

We were brought to our table which three people could sit on each side of the table. There were two stew pots on the table. We could use either one or two stew pots together. Each stew pot in use would be charged S$15.00 with a vegetable base and a choice of sauce. We used only one stew pot.

The fun idea is to create your stew out of a choice of more than 12 items from the list. Order at least four plates of food to achieve the optimal taste. A single stew pot cannot exceed six ingredients in it.

The above image showed the vegetable base for the stew pot.

We selected two fish and four meat (six in total) from the list which made up our “Combi Pot 自由组合”. They are Dory Fish 龙利鱼 (S$12.00), Cat Fish 鲶鱼 (S$12.00), Pork Chop 猪排 (S$10.00), Chicken Drum 鸡腿肉 (S$12.00), Frog 牛蛙 (S$18.00) and Sliced Beef wrapped with Enoki 金针菇肥牛卷 (S$9.00).

The vegetable base and all the meat would be left to stew for 15 minutes. We also savoured Spring Rolls 春卷 (S$5.50) and Chilled Cucumbers 刀拍黄瓜 (S$3.50) as a side dish while waiting.

The fried Spring Rolls came in a plate of six pieces. We snapped all up hungrily. There was nothing special about the spring rolls. It tasted like those being sold everywhere out there.

The raw chilled cucumbers were dipped in some dark sauce which tasted like a combination of light soy sauce with a drop of sesame oil. Cucumbers dipped in the sauce was a bad idea as cucumbers have no absorbing capacity, I did not taste the sauce that much but only a mouthful of raw cucumber taste.

I would not recommend the two side dish above because it was nothing special.

About 10 minutes later, six pieces of sliced beef wrapped with enoki were placed on top of the food and stewed for a few more minutes.

There were a few choices of sauces on the menu. The waitress told us that the “Seafood” sauce had a milder taste as compared to the “Original” sauce when asked to give us some comparison.

They have “Original” and “Spicy Original” sauce. We chose “Original” sauce because it was non-spicy as we had a kid around. The sauce was then added, stirred into the food and stewed for a while more.

Our food was finally ready for our consumption. We drooled over the taste of the sauce. My brother commented that the “Spicy Original” sauce tasted better than the “Original” sauce after having tried both of them.

The sauce was very appetising. All the meat was tasteless except for the sliced beef wrapped with enoki which was the most delicious of all. The aromatic flavour of the sauce was somewhat lost when eaten together with the meat. It did not taste as good as I had expected.

The natural taste of frog meat should be tasty even without the sauce. It tasted bland like the chicken meat. Maybe the meat was of low quality or kept too long.

I am always very particular about the taste of the pork. The pork tasted somewhat smelly which I disliked. I did not eat more than two pieces. All my family members thought the taste was alright.

The other fun aspect of discovery about this 三汁焖锅 | Three Sauce Simmer Pot food concept is the water could be added to the food and thick sauce at any time to transform the stew into a soup base and boil more food.

We had finished all the meat and left with some vegetable. We ordered additional Lettuce 生菜 (S$3.50) and Crab Balls 蟹肉丸 (S$5.00) to cook them in the soup.

The result of the soup was so full-flavoured that everyone was praising the aroma that derived from all the goodies stewed in it. The soup was slurped so quickly until the last drop.

The total bill came as S$ 141.26 (after GST) for six people (five adults and one child) with some drinks, rice, towels and 10% Service Charge. Average cost per pax would be S$ 28.25 (five headcounts excluding the child).

The concept of this stew pot is targetted for more than two people because a minimum of four types of meat and fish are required to form the “Combi Pot 自由组合” to maximise the aroma. Expect to pay around S$30.00+.

One marketing concept of Huang Ji Huang company was cooking the food without the chef. I would think that this is slightly expensive and yet unique to have a go.

Fascinating Story of Three Sauce Simmer Pot Origin
(In Mandarin Narration with Chinese and English Subtitles)