I feel no shame in admitting that this is my first ever mala meal. Due to mala being ridiculously overpriced, I’ve always given it a wide berth, opting for something much more value for money instead.

However, I ended up at Xiao Man Niu mainly due to the fact that everywhere else was packed to the rafters. I sympathetically patted my wallet and started picking out my ingredients of pork shabu shabu, chicken, Taiwanese sausage, fishballs, luncheon meat, instant noodles and assorted veggies. Fortunately, the damage at the end of it was about $25, which was a lot better than expected.

As for the mala itself, I was chose Xiao la due to all the stories of just how butt scorchingly violent some mala could be. It was nicely spicy, and didn’t overpower any other flavors in the xiang guo.

Overall, for $25, my first mala was actually pretty decent.