Piao Xiang Mala (ION Orchard)

Seek out this mala joint in a quiet corner of ION Orchard's food court. You're here for their impressive zi char dishes, soaked in housemade mala sauce that sees the use of over 30 types of spices. We recommend their Mala Crispy Fried Fish ($16), which is light and crisp to the bite. The medium spice level packs a punch without numbing your senses to the umami flavours. We also love that the dishes are well-balanced — neither too oily nor salty.
Photo by Burppler Alicia Kho

Light, airy and not at all greasy (seems to be the case with all their fried items here) batter, this dish was a winner with everyone around the table! Encasing it, a moist and flaky dory fish, which paired well with the fragrant and thick mala sauce. Must-get item here!

Don’t let its simple look fool you — this is one tasty platter of fried mushrooms. Light, airy and not at all oily batter, encasing plump, juicy and fresh assorted mushrooms (four diff types, including Shiitake, Oyster, Porcini and Maitake). I could very much envision coming by again just to get a takeaway box of this to snack on-the-go.

This was super yummy! Soft dory in a light, crisp batter coated with a thicker mala sauce. This was fried really well and was easily one of the tables favourite dishes. Definitely a must-order!

*Portion size may vary, this was from a tasting

飘香麻辣 has opened its second outlet in the popular ION Orchard’s Food Opera! Catered to the local palate, the mala here has less salt and oil, but makes up for it with more flavour and fragrance. Besides the usual build-your-own-bowl, Head Chef 发哥 applies his experience as a zi char chef to great effect, creating unique dishes each with their own take on mala. This mala crab uses live crab and was extremely fresh, coated in a slick, numbing sauce that had a strong 干香 flavour.

This is from Piao Xiang Mala at Ion Food Opera (ION Orchard) / Food Republic (313@Somerset). They are one of the pioneers in making Mala Xiang Guo popular as they started way in 2009. There are people who loves the numbing effect, there are those who likes the spicy bonkers. I prefer spicy more than numbing. What about you? Glad to be able to know more about this stall from the @foodrepublicsg folks. This stall has their own formula of Mala which includes 30 over spices and it is prepared over 5 hours. The Mala recipe by 发哥 (Fa Ge) has evolved to be less salty and oily compared to most versions out there. For some Mala eaters, they like to have it without rice and their version here is not so salty till you have to eat it with rice. You can see the ingredients they have in the video! Fa Ge has a soft spot for chicken feet, so they have chicken feet here too! 😍