Reunion dinner

I've been over indulging on food lately, like there is no tomorrow. I guess during Chinese New Year, it is virtually impossible for all of us not to overeat and to avoid weight gain, right? But no matter how much I exercise, that bulging tummy seems determined to stay on me. DUH!

I was extremely busy preparing food for the CNY's eve. As always, I'd usually do all the cooking and my sister in law in the house would help. I've to confess I am pretty lazy when it comes to cooking, especially on a big day like CNY. But then, all relatives would gathered at my MIL's place for a steamboat reunion dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve. Here we are, it's that time of the year again where everyone enjoys a great get together and the children gleefully accepting angpows (the amount of money they get in red packets).

The fun part of having steamboat is when everyone digs in to fish out the ingredients of their choice from the bubbling stock. Somehow, it took us more than half a day to prepare the ingredients and cooking. The ingredients were easily available at the wet markets and supermarkets but the tasks of preparing them seemed to be laborious. The chicken stock entailed a lot of work with all the ingredients simmering in the pot for hours to get that rich and tasteful flavour. Some of the food items to savour include prawns, squids, clams, fillet chicken, fish, vegetables, fish maw, mushrooms, abalones, and some assorted fishballs. Yup, nothing beats having the fragrant aroma of the items sizzling hot from the wok. Emmm, yummy......

I hope everyone had a fabulous time during the CNY season and another great week ahead...