It was Singapore’s 47th birthday yesterday, and that’s also a public holiday for us. Like past years, we didn’t get the parade tickets. His mom prepared steamboat feast for his cousins & family and they came over, eat and watch the parade at the same time.
We not only have steamboat during Chinese New Year, his mom loves to prepare steamboat whenever there’s a gathering. It is easy to prepare and everyone can gather around at the dining table, cook and chat at the same time. Perhaps the only troublesome part is that you have to cut the ingredients before and wash the bowls after the meal. Then again, nowadays there’s disposable bowls & plates, already sliced pork, etc. It’s quite convenient after all.
Besides the ingredients, the soup base is one of the main item for a Steamboat meal. There are instant ones like Chicken Cubes, instant soup stock. His mom likes to eat healthy, so she did not use the instant steamboat base as the soup. She preferred to boil the stock with sweet corn (cut to large chunks) and carrot (peeled and cut to large chunks) (sometimes there will be chicken bone, onions as well). Actually, it does taste nice and no MSG (that’s most important). I don’t think she added salt. Anyway, as we added the steamboat ingredients like meat, prawns, vegetables, fish, etc…all these will add on to the flavor and sweetness of the soup. We always like to add some ma-mee into the soup as noodles :p
Besides steamboat, she made her signature Egg & Tuna and Potato salad. They are one of the essential stuffs she’ll add on. For a change, she did not use Thousand Island dressing for the Egg & Tuna salad, she used Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing instead, which tastes equally nice and appetizing.
with love…