It’s the eve of Chinese New Year. While most people are busy enjoying reunion dinner with their families, the two of us are parked in front of the computer and TV this evening. We had already eaten reunion dinners with our respective families over the last two weekends.
There were certain years when I had to eat reunion dinners with my dad’s side of the family on Chinese New Year’s eve at a restaurant. Those were truly horrifying experiences because of the maddening crowds. Jostling with truckloads of people at the restaurants was a killjoy, not that there was much joy to begin with.
We had a Chinese dinner at the Imperial Treasures Cantonese Restaurant at Great World City with my in-laws. While it was super delicious and convenient, I still prefer to eat reunion dinner at home with home-cooked food. So for reunion dinner with my side of the family, my mom and I decided that we should have steamboat, which was perfect for the cold and rainy weather that we have been experiencing lately.
Instead of the usual steamboat, I thought that we should do it Japanese-style this year.
Nabemono!
With a dashi-miso broth. Napa cabbage, tang-oh, enoki and buna-shimeiji mushrooms. Tofu and Japanese fishcakes. Boiled hotate and fresh scallops. Udon. Plenty of pork shabu-shabu slices. Dips – My mother’s home-made chilli, ponzu and goma dare.
The Japanese uses a claypot to cook their nabemono. We do not have one of those and made do with our stainless steel steamboat.
