Steamboat (at home)

A day after Jacky Cheung's concert, a steamboat dinner was organized, in conjunction with Aunt Yvonne's upcoming birthday. The other reason was to "officiate" the can of abalone which I bought during Chinese New Year (can't wait to try).

I was really looking forward to this dinner as we seldom frequent steamboat restaurants and the fact that family-style steamboats usually boast minimum usage of MSG and fresher ingredients. Let's not forget unlimited helpings too!

For the soup base, the main ingredients were chicken and pig bones, which are the fundamentals for a rich-flavoured soup.

As for the ingredients for the steamboat (besides abalone), we added in crabs, meatballs (MSG-filled but still an all-time favourite!), oyster mushroom, dried beancurd skin, fish, Chinese cabbage, vermicelli, quail eggs, beancurd, wantons, prawns and the list goes on and on.

The soup tasted really sweet and clear, thanks to the addition of seafood such as crabs and prawns. A topping of cilantro and spring onions added extra flavour and texture to the soup. All ingredients were cooked just right (under Mum's watchful eyes).

I must compliment Mum on the wonderful wantons. The poached prawns wrapped in wanton skin exhibited a firm and juicy filling within a smooth layer of wanton skin. No MSG, no artificial flavouring. Nice! I usually help Mum to wrap the filling but since I was busy experimenting my camera, Mum had to do it herself.

Apart from the steamboat, I was also really looking forward to the roasted duck. Cousin Andy bought this in PJ (I must get the address from him) and according to him, this is a bestseller and is usually sold out within a few hours of sale. The fragrant skin was not charred and the meat was absolutely tender (a teenage duckling, perhaps?). The duck taste was retained (no much herb infusion) and usage of salt was optimum. A little inappropriate for a steamboat dinner but still, an outstanding winner!

After the wonderful dinner, we had a birthday cake (Tiramisu) for dessert. Guess where did I buy that cake? Read the next post to find out.