A Steamy Affair

So, today is Yuan Xiao Jie (元宵节) – the Lantern Festival – which marks the fifteenth and final day of the Lunar New Year celebrations period. And it’s nice that it falls this year on a Sunday, as that presented us with a good excuse, I mean, occasion to organize a mega steamboat dinner in the hall. No love, no matchmaking today, no romance in the air, although that’s the original, traditional meaning of Yuan Xiao Jie. What you smelt instead was the steamboat broth bubbling and the garlic bits sizzling on the pan. Let's be clear. We’re here for the food.

Coordinated by the Celebrity Swinger Chef, who prepared the soupy stock vital to all steamboats, each of us undertook to provide different ingredients, such as the fishballs and beefballs, the vegetables, the crabsticks, mushrooms, eggs, sausages, toufu and pork slices – all of which were merrily dumped into the rice cookers.

It turned out to be a steamy and hot affair in the London House basement buttery, where the ventilation is crap, but eminently satisfying nonetheless, especially when rounded off with grapes and a rich chocolate tart. One now wonders what the long run earlier in the afternoon was for. *Burp*

The Singapore Lawyer has suggested that we try our hands at preparing Teochew porridge the next time we gather en masse, which sounds like an amazingly delicious idea. Definitely something to look forward to. The question is – can we get all the necessary ingredients we need in London? Are salted eggs easily available? We need copious amounts of crunchy ikan bilis as well.

While I go dream about this next adventure, here are some super-duper live-action images from earlier this evening: