SOUPer Hot Malatang Brings the Spicy Sichuan Classic to QC

Souper Hot Malatang
Branches at 125 General Araneta Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City; and G/F D Condo, Maginhawa Street, Quezon City
Facebook: facebook.com/souperhotMaLaTang
Open from 10:30 a.m. to 3 a.m., Monday to Sunday (Araneta); 10:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., Monday to Sunday (Maginhawa)

(SPOT.ph) Starting a restaurant focused on malatang—the Sichuan street food that's best likened to spicy hot pot—after a long career managing a shoe shop was a leap of faith that has so far paid off for John Derrick Tin in the last five years.

It all started on a rainy night in Southern China, during a routine trip Tin took to liaise with his suppliers. Cold and tired, Tin was looking for something filling but also nutritious, health nut that he was, and come across an unassuming malatang stall. This experience didn’t just change the range of his taste buds, but also his career.

Immediately, Tin tells SPOT.ph, he sought out what he describes as the "leading Malatang chain restaurant in China" and convinced a "lifelong Malatang master" to teach him. (Tin doesn't name them, but his passion for the subject makes it more than evident he was after the best of the best.)

Tin then trained in their restaurant, deflecting “the scrutiny, bashing, and envy of a chef” who was wondering why an outsider was being taught their secrets. Tin returned to the Philippines with new knowledge, a lot of spices, and tons of resolve. He’s since received regular online training from said master.

Also read: 
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SOUPer Hot Malatang in Quezon City

Hot if not always spicy

Malatang is so named for mala, describing both a sauce and an experience where its Chinese characters describe a flavor profile numbing spiciness that defines the customizable dish.

It’s often compared to hot pot, but where diners scratch build everything starting with the soup, in a malatang restaurant, Tin shares, the soup bases are often boiled hours before and diners need only select their soup after choosing their noodles, greens, meat, and other toppings, much like a Mongolian bowl. As such, serving time is faster than in a hotpot restaurant, perfect for those on-the-go.

Souper Hot offers different soup bases, such as Kung Fu, satay, green chili, white beef bone, vegetarian tomato, and more. Diners can also opt for malaxiangguo, essentially a stir-fried dry version.

The shop’s layout is good for both solo diners and friends dining together. In contrast to a hotpot restaurant were groups of diners have to make sure they’re aligned in the ingredients they want, here, while friends can opt to share, those in the group who want something else can build their own bowls.

Bringing Malatang to Manila

Since opening in 2019, Souper Hot Malatang in Cubao has grown through a series of interior and menu changes, as it is with many an indie restaurant adjusting its footing amidst market and social trends, all while adhering to its core identity and offerings, anything to make these better and best.

Having settled into a steady day-to-day rhythm, Tin took another leap of faith and opened a second branch in foodie-frequented Maginhawa Street, Quezon City.

As of press time, Souper Hot has a number of offerings and modalities that distinguish it from equally-popular malatang restaurants in the Metro. For one, while others have a single price-per-gram for ingredients, Tin separates his selections into value (P0.75/gram) and premium (P1.25/gram) choices.

Tin emphasizes that affordability next to flavor profile is what must define malatang, hinting how when transplanted to Manila, it can become a more upscale restaurant concept whereas in China, it’s largely consumed as street food, accessible to anyone and everyone.

So far, his gambit paid off as he shares that in the Cubao branch, employees from the nearby restaurants, as well as drivers on standby eat in his place frequently, some of them eating daily. P100 is the minimum price one can spend for a bowl. Similar places have a minimum based on the grams of a bowl, essentially setting the price above P200.

Nonetheless, Tin doesn’t compromise on quality, and this contributes to the varied demographics patronizing the shop at any given time. “I’m banking on happy customers returning,” he grins.

Tin says of his training: “I was advised to use the best, freshest ingredients and meticulous procedures, to avoid shortcuts, and sometimes I joke that this soup is ‘the most expensive in the world.’” Souper Hot’s main soup base is Kung Fu and this is no idle brand, but rather “a reference to the actual discipline and rigor that goes behind the scenes at martial arts, where most audiences see the acrobatics.”

Souper Hot’s Kung Fu takes at least 30 herbs and spices with beef bones as the base, boiled for a total of 12 hours with 5 hours dedicated just to removing impurities from the bones. On loop in the restaurant is a video of Tin explaining how the beef bones are prepared and boiled.

“Malatang can fit many contexts,” Tin expounds, “some people want a full meal and thus fill their bowls, others want a light soup to wash down and cleanse the palate after a heavier meal, and others still want their visit to be their “clean eating day.”

Browsing through the selections, one can see what Tin means as rich dumplings and sausages sit under a wide selection of greens and rootcrops like choisum, bokchoy, squash, lotus root, and mustard lettuce, to meat alternatives like beancurd sticks and shirataki cubes. There’s also fresh seafood like prawns and scallops, and fresh meat in various marinades, from plain salted pork belly to sukiyaki beef.

Having made their selections including the soup base, diners now determine their spice options. Tin recommends the first two (of five) options to get a Filipino-friendly mala without burning the tongue too much. Nonetheless, Tin has left out condiments like crushed peppercorn oil, dried chili oil, garlic sauce, black vinegar, and much more on the side for those who want to tweak the flavor knobs.

Looking back at the last five years and beyond his restaurant, Tin shares that “I’m happy that the Philippines, well, Metro Manila at least, has embraced Malatang, and in the process, Sichuan cuisine. I’m confident that Filipinos will soon have a discerning taste for what authentic Malatang from China is like as we expect more Malatang shops and brands to open.”

Diners whose bowls go beyond P200 get a free side dish, usually a cup of white rice or a boiled egg. There’re others for sale, like cua pao and poached egg.

Given his "very good experience with malatang" during his time in China, Tin shares: “it’s something I want to share with more people. It’s not just a business. I want to serve something I myself would eat regularly.”

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