As a Teochew, I was not familiar with beef hotpot as something that would be associated with the cuisine. But since I have been back to the hometown of my father, I was addicted to this simple and delicious form of hotpot.
Baheli Beef Hotpot 八合里 is the best among those numerous beef hotpot in Swatow. Now they are available all over China, and there’s one just next to my Shanghai office in the Cloud 9 Shopping Mall.

When it first opened in 2018, the queue was ridiculously long. Finally after such a long time, I was able to walk into the shop to get my Teochew beef hotpot fix. There’s only one soup based available, and I ordered a half-portion of mix beef and tendons meatballs. These beef meatballs were the one that inspired the Stephen Chow’s exploding beef meatball in “God of Cuisine”.

And the sauces available were not as varied as Sichuan hotpots. But they were well suited for the beef.

The chilled beef was airflown from the slaughterhouse in Yunnan and then handout at the stores around the country. To enjoy beef that came from cows slaughtered in house and cut on the spot, that can only be done at the HQ in Shantou.
匙柄 Chuck 吊龙伴 Sirloin 胸口朥 Chest fat membrane 肥牛 Flank
As I was the only diner, I could only manage four cuts this round. And one of them was not beef technically but the fatty membrane on the cow chest called 胸口朥. It would turn crunchy when cooked properly.
匙柄 Chuck 胸口朥 Chest fat membrane 吊龙伴 Sirloin 生菜 Lettuce
Every type of beef has a different cooking time, ranging from 10-15 seconds. And unlike normal hotpot, the entire plate of beef was blanched all at once and then then enjoyed with the rest at the table. My favourite among all the cuts remained the 吊龙伴 Sirloin.

Unlike the Geylang Lorong 9 version which used a fermented black bean sauce, Baheli’s version of 湿炒牛河 Wet Beef Horfun used the fermented yellow bean sauce. Nevertheless, it was just as tasty.
Baheli Chaoshan Beef Hotpot 八合里潮汕牛肉火锅
长宁路龙之梦购物中心8楼 8059-8063铺面
Tel : 021-62340866
Date Visited : Jun 2021
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