Cinbin's birthday

Well this was one birthday party I couldn't miss. Cinbin is as big as an alcoholic as me, and her birthday was bound to be an alcohol laden affair.

Punch anyone?

Or should we do some shots?

Of course, being a responsible adult, we should promote healthy balanced eating....

Fruit!!

We had finished about half a bowl of punch, multiple shots before dinner even began. And what was dinner? Steamboat! Luckily the weather was quite cool and perfect for some steamboating. The one thing I love when steamboating is balls. I love balls. Fish balls that is. And beef balls. And pork balls. But then with the range available now days, I'm not limited to just balls. I also love the tofu fish and the seaweed thingy. Basically anything cut out of a packet and dunked into the water. Don't get me wrong, I still like the beef, and the tofu, squid, pork blood jelly, prawns, fish etc etc, but I like my packaged balls. Which is what made the steamboat soooooooooooooooooo good this time!

MmMmm balls...

Wonga bok

Shaved lamb

Shaved beef

Steamboating in action

We made one vital mistake during the steamboat session. We were so busy stuffing our faces, we forgot that we had a cake......

Chocolate strawberry torte

Coconut macaroons for dessert


Happy Birthday Cinbin!

The joys of a pot at the table

I once considered moving to Singapore to work. My sister is already set up over there and my brother was also located there for a few years. One of the big reasons I never moved to Singapore was the weather. I HATE THE HEAT. And Singapore is stinking hot most of the time. On average you need to shower 2-3 times a day. When you wake up, when you get home from work (or for me, shopping) and just before bed. Its humid and sticky and all you feel like most days is something cool and refreshing. And because of this, my sister has never had steamboat at home in Singapore. You can go out and order steam boat in a restaurant, but its not half as much fun as having it at home. You can buy all the ingredients you like, and in mass quanities! And when you've eaten til you think you're gonna burst, you walk into your room, change into your trackie daks and come back for round 2!

Since the summer in Sydney has actually been quite cool, we decided to organise steam boat at home and let my sister absolutely pig out (And for the rest of us as well).

Our new electric Steam Boat stove

My dad bought this stove the last time he went back to China. Not only does it boil the water super fast, it saves us buying cans and cans of gas to power our old stove. No more sitting around waiting for the water to boil because you want to use up the last half can of gas before opening a new one. This is all power baby!

Mung bean sprouts

I am quite indifferent to mung bean sprouts. Its not the taste I don't particularly like (I loveeeee bean sprouts), its the actual mung bean at the end of the sprout. I hate chewing on it. Its a waste of energy and it doesn't taste particularly special. If there was nothing to eat I would eat it, but given a choice, I'd just leave it on my plate.

Shaved beef

Fillets of fatty beef is frozen and then shaved into paper thin slices. This makes them easier to cook. You literally pick up a slice of beef and wave it around in the hot water for 5-10secs and its ready to eat! With steam boat, you usually get a small little ladle/strainer that you place food in and then place into the hot water to cook. In our family, if you let go of your beef in the pot, regardless of whether its still in the strainer or not, its public property. First come first serve.

Thinly sliced Ox tongue

EWWWW! But its oh so delicious! Just like the beef, we freeze this when we get home and then thinly thinly hand slice them. The cooking time is a bit longer than the beef, about 20-30secs. But its soooooo tender and slightly crunchy when you eat it! You must try it if given a chance. Just pretend its beef.....well....it IS beef...kinda....

Tofu

Tong Ho - Type of chinese veggie

Chinese cabbage

Sliced jumbo mushrooms

I have no idea how to translate this to english, but its a Tofu skin/fish cake/seaweed thing

Oysters!

Super juicy close up

MmMMm I LOVEEEEEE OYSTERS!! Most of my family doesn't eat raw oysters, whilst for me, if I'm at a buffet? MAUhaAUhaUAh BRING IT ON! I can easily do 2-3 dozen and will turn it into a whole meal for myself. My parents like them steamed when we go out to Chinese restaurants, but its also beautiful when lightly poached during steam boat. I had one poached one, and countless other raw ones :D

Pigs blood jelly

Another EWWWWWW for people who have never had it before. Alot of the jelly you get out there, once cooked goes very hard and crumbly. This one we got, it was still silky smooth even after thoroughly cooking it. It may look gross, but think of it as dark savory jelly....

Home made fish and prawn balls

My mum made 2 batches of these. One plate of fish balls, one plate of prawn balls. Both types involved hand mincing the fish/prawn. We never use a food processor at home for this. It must be hand minced using the back of a cleaver. The chopping action breaks down the meat until its all finely minced, but since it isn't the blade side of the cleaver, it doesn't actually sever the fibers of the fish/prawns giving them extra bite (unlike the marshmallow ones you get out there). You must also always mix the meat in one direction when kneading the flavour into it. Change directions and the meat breaks down.

Octopus

Prawns

Cuttlefish balls and tofu fish (My favourites!!)

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