Hot & Sour Pork Bone Broth @ Gong Yuan Ma La Tang

singapore,food review,gong yuan ma la tang,the clementi mall,mala,3155 commonwealth ave west,宫源麻辣烫,kimchi,

The ma la craze has taken Singapore by storm for many years now, but can you believe that this is actually my first time having it?

Had I not won a gift voucher for Gong Yuan Ma La Tang from The Clementi Mall giveaway, I doubt I would have ever taken the first step to come to this ma la place for a meal.

So, what is stopping me from having something so popular with Singaporeans?

For the uninitiated, how these ma la places works, is by allowing customers to fill up an empty bowl with an assortment of ingredients like meats and vegetables from the chiller buffet styled.

You take whatever you fancy, and you will be charged according to the weight of the contents in the bowl. Therefore, the more you take, the heavier the bowl will be. There is a minimum order of 300 grammes.

Your order will then be prepared according to your desire (dry? soup? spicy? non-spicy?)

Foremost, I cannot wrap my head around the fact that these ma la places actually charge the ingredients by weight! This was literally unheard of before the ma la craze came to town. What's even more incredible is that this has been accepted as the norm and there is no lack of people willing to pay $20 - $30 for a bowl!

For context, a bowl of ramen from a Japanese restaurant can cost anything from $11 - $18. More if premium ingredients like crab is involved. Maybe it is not a fair apple to apple comparison, but you get the drift?

I have nothing against ma la but it is just something that I find hard to accept, economically wise.

While picking my ingredients, I was on tenterhooks the entire time, worrying that I would go over the limit.

When I put the bowl on the digital scale, I stared intently at the climbing numbers. I could feel my blood pressure going up as well.

My bill came up to a grand total of $15.35 (468 grammes). After deducting my $10 voucher, I only had to fork out $5.35.