Keikyu: A Hotpot That Steams Instead of Boils, and a Finale Worth Waiting For | Yokohama Chinatown

Hi everyone, it's Boss.

No broth, no boiling — this hotpot steams. Today it's Keikyu, on Chinatown Main Street.

It works the opposite way to a normal hotpot

A regular hotpot simmers your ingredients in a seasoned broth. A steam pot doesn't simmer anything.

High-pressure steam rises from beneath the pot, and everything you lay on top is cooked by that steam alone. Lift the lid and the steam goes straight up to the ceiling. All you do is place things on top — shellfish, meat, vegetables.

You'll often see it described as "no water at all," but that isn't quite right. What it means is that nothing is simmered in broth. There is rice and stock in the base of the pot, and that becomes important later.

No seasoning means nowhere to hide

A steam pot barely seasons anything. You make your own dipping sauce at the table.

Which means the ingredients taste of exactly what they are. If something isn't fresh, no broth is going to cover it. A restaurant that serves this is choosing to compete on that.

The climax is the rice porridge at the end

This is the real event.

While everything steams, every drop that falls collects in the base of the pot. The juice from the shellfish, the fat from the meat, the water from the vegetables. That is what the final porridge is made from.

Every bit of essence from everything you cooked is concentrated right there. That part is priceless.

You can finish with noodles or with porridge. I went with the porridge.

They stopped the all-you-can-eat. It's reservation-only now

One important thing.

Keikyu used to run this as an all-you-can-eat seafood floor on the fourth level, where you picked live prawns and crab out of the tank yourself. Almost every article and photo you'll find online is from that period.

That has changed. The all-you-can-eat is gone, and the steam pot has come back as a reservation-only course. No king crab, no live tank. Book before you go.

About steam hotpot

In Chinese it's zhengqi huoguo. Some say it began in Guangzhou, others trace it to the steam stone pot fish of Yunnan, and which came first isn't settled. It only arrived in Japan in the last few years, and it's still rare in Chinatown.

Watch the video

Keikyu is a short walk from ROUROU. If you're stopping by our shop, give it a try.

The videos are on Instagram @y.chinatown_boss and YouTube @bossmeshi.

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