Hi there, dear friends😀
Yesterday, I was feeling kind of lazy and was not up to cooking at all😳 , and yet, I wanted to do something special for my family. Seeing as it has been raining and the days are quite cool these days, I decided to do a “Steamboat Lunch” instead.
A “steamboat” is like a hot pot or Chinese fondue, where there is a pot of hot simmering soup placed at the centre of the table, and a wide array of meats and vegetables are available for selection and cooked by the individual diners.
Ah, how wonderful for me – the cooking is left to my family, who enjoy tremendously our steamboat meals. All I needed to do was just make a simple chicken stock out of chicken necks and bones and prepare the meats and vegetables before the meal. Then, I just sat back and let my husband and children did all the cooking for me! Easy!😉
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A Steamboat with the soup simmering at the centre of my dining table, with meats to be cooked – from right:- fish balls, squid or sotong balls, Fu Zhou fishballs (stuffed with pork), crabsticks, tofu-fish squares. All these were purchased from the wet markets.
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On the other side – oyster mushrooms in a bowl, golden needle mushrooms or Enoki, marinated pork and chicken slices, shelled prawns
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Some soaked rice vermicelli, raw eggs, lettuce leaves…I also have on the other side some assortment of vegetables like sliced Napa Cabbage, kangkong…usually, the eggs and the noodles are to be eaten towards the end of the meal when the soup stock is really rich and tasty from cooking all those meats😀
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Each person has his/her own dipping sauce consisting of “teem cheong” or a kind of sweet sauce (hoisin sauce can be used in place of this), some finely chopped garlic and bird-eye chili (cili padi), with a squeeze of lime juice
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We had this for lunch and I made double portions of the meats and vegetables – one half was eaten for lunch, and the other half was kept in the refrigerator for dinner. Dinner was a Thai spicy and sour soup noodle (Tomyam noodle). Yummy!😀
Do have a wonderful week!
With peace and harmony,
choesf😀
Annaly said,
July 6, 2009 @ 9:58 AM
Do you crack the eggs and add them that way? Looks yummy.
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happyhomemaker88 said,
July 6, 2009 @ 11:46 AM
Hi there and welcome, dear Annaly😀
Yes, we just crack the eggs into the soup and let them poach gently. They are then ladled out and eaten with some soup and rice vermicelli in a bowl.😉
With best wishes,
choesf😀
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taney said,
July 6, 2009 @ 11:19 PM
wow! looks delicious! i haven’t had hot pot for a while. =\
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happyhomemaker88 said,
July 7, 2009 @ 9:18 AM
This hot pot would be really good to have during those cold wintry months, dear Taney!😀
Do have a lovely day!
With best wishes,
choesf😀
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Stephanie said,
December 16, 2009 @ 1:09 PM
I absolutely love this idea with this meal. I live in the USA and I would love to find a steamboat pot to cook my family a meal like this. How much do they cost? You come up with the coolest ideas.
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happyhomemaker88 said,
December 16, 2009 @ 5:18 PM
Hi there and welcome, dear Stephanie from USA😀
Thank you for your kind comments.😀
Heheh, it is good when everyone does some cooking at the dining table, sip some wine and have a good conversation going. I’m not sure how much the steamboat pots cost in the US, but in Malaysia, we can get a good one for about US$50?
If you have a portable gas or electric or induction stove top that you can place onto your dining table – just place a medium size steel pot with chicken stock or your favourite soup base and you can have your own steamboat meal. Some of us even use our automatic rice cookers as a steamboat pot at the dining table..it will serve the purpose as well!😉
Hope you get the chance to have your steamboat meal…I am very sure if it’s the first time for you and your guests, you will have a wonderful experience with it. If you need any help with ideas for sauces to go with the meats and vegetables…let me know here, and I can give you some simple recipes/ideas.💡
With best wishes,
choesf😀
P.S. Now that you are experiencing winter, this meal is the perfect way to keep warm at the dining table!😀
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DeeDee said,
December 17, 2009 @ 10:51 AM
Everything looks so fresh!
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happyhomemaker88 said,
December 17, 2009 @ 11:24 AM
Good morning, dear DeeDee😀
Yes, it is important to have the ingredients fresh as we cook them very quickly in the boiling soup before dipping them into the delicious sauces for eating.😉
With best wishes,
choesf😀
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Juli said,
June 28, 2012 @ 10:07 AM
Everything on this blog looks so good🙂 I’m new here and don’t know much about Asian food in general, but I intend to keep reading- very interesting stuff!
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happyhomemaker88 said,
June 28, 2012 @ 10:53 AM
Hi there, dear Juli😀
Thank you for your compliments! Do drop by here to look around and we will have a virtual cup of tea or coffee together.😆
Have a nice day!
With best wishes,
choesf😀
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