the other night, when my friend umarube and his taiwanese wife fathimath chao said they wanted to go somewhere for lunch, fong hotpot and bbq immediately popped into my mind. i’d seen the place before on my trips back from phase two.

but there’s no way of knowing whether they’re open because googling these guys gives me a number that doesn’t pick up. or respond to texts.

anyhow, we’re all here today and by a stroke of fate it IS open. in fact, it stays open from noon till 1am every day. turns out they just opened for business a couple of weeks ago. how’s that!

it’s 480 rufiyaa per person for their hotpot and bbq buffet. pretty expensive, so expectations are quite high.

‘it smells really good,’ says fathimath chao. ‘like it’s supposed to.’

encouraging.

and we’re ushered in by a thin, smiling man who speaks to us in english and has a brief conversation with fathimath in chinese. he takes us deeper into the restaurant.

almost the entire ground floor is dedicated to ingredients – there’s a seafood and meat chiller, and a separate one for noodles, mushrooms, and vegetables.

‘there’s so much going on,’ says umarube. ‘i want everything.’

we make our selection and go upstairs to our booth where two hotpots with different kinds of broth – chicken, and spiced sichuan pepper – await us alongside a bbq plate.

soon the broth begins to boil and we dump our ingredients into the bubbling water – the noodles, the vegetables, mushrooms, some seafood including sea snails. then we choose our dipping sauces from the condiment table which is next to a big karaoke setup. this place is hardcore asian.

once we’re seated again, i have a taste of the chicken broth. it’s still mostly chicken-ey, but has absorbed the mushroom and seafood flavours. a heady blend. i try to eat a snail with a fork.

‘no, do it with a toothpick,’ says fathimath, deftly placing the meats on the bbq while umarube looks on greedily. despite my best efforts, i cannot get a hold on the snail, so fathimath tries to get it out for me. but it’s for nought.

‘why don’t you try pulling it out with your teeth?’ she suggests.

hell no.

instead, i eat the meats. they are excellent, especially the sliced beef, which releases little pops of flavour from the fat with every bite. i grill the prawns, a few minutes on each side until they’re orange, remove their heads and shells and bite into them – the flesh is firm and a little sweet: perfect.

‘man, this is amazing,’ says umarube eating a boiled fish ball. ‘what a fantastic find, husenfulhu.’

‘we got lucky,’ i say and try the peppery hotpot. it’s great but i am not prepared for this level of spice and end up sputtering and coughing.

‘in taiwan, we once went to this traditional doctor because of a persistent cough,’ says fathimath. ‘she listened to our coughs and made us some rose tea, i think with goji berries, and it cured us completely.’

‘i could use some tea,’ i say.

‘there’s iced tea downstairs,’ says umarube.

so, i get some iced lemon tea, and my god, the flavours are superbly balanced: a hint of lemon, lots of tea, and a bit of sweetness. most places in male seem to confuse iced tea with lemonade. and here we have this unassuming chinese restaurant showing us all how it’s done from all the way in phase two.

‘it’s a real winner, this place,’ i tell my friends. ‘worth every laari. i’m coming again.’

‘it’s good,’ says fathimath.

‘fathima’s the kind of person who’d go to heaven and say ‘it’s good’ when you ask her what she thinks,’ says umarube.

a good note to end this one on.