No wimps, Boise. This new restaurant serves blood, intestines, ‘mouth-numbing flavors’
Chicken feet. Frog legs. Pork intestines.
Duck blood?
Some of the menu ingredients at Mala House, a new restaurant in the Idaho Asian Plaza, might draw gasps from diners in culture-sheltered Idaho. At least timid ones.
Newly opened at 3027 N. Cole Road, this restaurant should spice up Boise’s dining scene in more ways than one.
Mala House delivers “a fiery and flavorful dining experience,” its website promises. “Specializing in traditional Sichuan hot pot and spicy Chinese cuisine, Mala House brings the bold, mouth-numbing flavors of Sichuan to the heart of the city. With its wide variety of fresh ingredients and a signature blend of aromatic spices, this restaurant is a must-visit for spice lovers and anyone craving an unforgettable taste of China’s most renowned culinary region.”
Main attractions are hot pot combinations ($38.99 for two diners, $75.99 for four), which come with three types of soup bases and dipping sauces. You get to choose from familiar, tempting meats such as American wagyu or lamb. Or go with a nine-grid vegetable platter — if you’re not a carnivore.
Why not join your dining companions for a nine-grid meat platter adventure? One comes with braised quail eggs, duck blood, squid, beef balls, cilantro meatballs, fish balls, crab meat strips, beef tripe and luncheon meat. The other includes braised pork bung (large intestine), braised chicken feet, duck intestines, squid tentacles, oysters, shrimp, beef black tripe, shrimp paste and fish tofu.
The house special? A Mini Mala Pot ($25.99), a spicy blend of black beef tripe, beef tripe, luncheon meat, duck blood, squid, lotus root, potato, soybean sprouts and enoki mushrooms.
Dry pot options include Mala Frog Legs ($29.99), Mala Jumbo Shrimp ($25.99), Mala Pork Spare Ribs ($25.99), Chongqing Taro Chicken ($29.99) and Mala Crawfish ($25.99). Grilled fish entrees ($39.99 ) also come in mala, cumin or garlic varieties.
Sides are priced at either $4 or $7. The lower-cost choices range from Preserved Duck Egg and Boiled 5 Spices Peanuts to Garlic Cucumber and Sichuan Pickle. The $7 options include items such as Mala Braised Beef Shank and Tendon, Egg Fried Rice, Stir Fried Noodles and Mala Braised Pork Ear.
Good luck finding a menu quite like this anywhere else in Idaho, let alone the Treasure Valley.
Mala House is gracious enough to post its menu online, too — where you also can order food.
If you visit — or call in an order at (208) 616-3469 — keep in mind that the restaurant just soft-opened. (It replaced Peking Tokyo Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar.) Standard hot pots temporarily are unavailable for takeout, Mala House wrote on Facebook. But mini hot-pot options are full-go.
Mala House said it’s adding “finishing touches to our beautiful dining room ... It’s our privilege to begin serving authentic, Sichuan-style Chinese food to our community here in Boise!”
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 4:00 AM.