You could pick almost any hot pot place on Luzhu Hutong, a wonderfully winding jumble of steamy eateries, ragtag homesteads and shop fronts. But Xiao Liu Shuanrou is remarkable in that it’s so authentically, well, unremarkable. A tiny box-shaped room houses four cheerfully dressed vinyl tables topped with excellent chilli sauce and vinegar. Once-white walls, strip lighting and dozens of empty baijiu bottles along the wall sum up the décor: functional.
Pick your fixings from a one-page print-out of lamb, tofu and veggies. The laoban, cigarette in teeth, will heap glowing coals into a battered copper pot, and set it at your table topped with a huge funnel on top to suck in air and get the soup simmering. The water-based broth is seasoned simply with goji berries, ginger and dates on one side, and spicy chilli on the other. Such an austere broth demands quality meat, so order the pricier hand-sliced mutton (shouqie yangrou), bought from nearby Niu Jie. Particularly fresh and tender,
it retains its flavor profile even when dunked
liberally in the cilantro-flecked sesame sauce.
If you ignore the tinny
music coming out of the laoban’s mobile phone, this is a place where Father Time really does seem to have stood still. But don’t be fooled. He’s just taking
a breather. Like much of the
surrounding neighborhood, it won’t be around much longer, so visit while you can.
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