13 Tips for a delicious steamboat meal

13 tips for a delicious steamboat meal

Having steamboat for dinner is a very common cuisine especially in Singapore. To avoid embarrassing ourselves and to prevent our elders from nagging, here are our top tips to ensure you indulge in an enjoyable and delicious steamboat.

#1 Do not double dip

Avoid dipping half eaten food into shared dipping sauces, unless you are very sure that your dining buddies are alright with it.

#2 Get a chicken-based stock

This ensures that everyone at the table will be able to enjoy their meal, as some people may not eat beef, mutton or tom yam.

#3 Avoid stuffing too many ingredients in at once

Doing this may cause the soup to keep boiling/simmering, increasing the chances of it overflowing.

#4 Use separate utensils for raw and cooked food

Have a different set of utensils for raw food such as chicken, fish, uncooked seafood, pork, and a separate set of utensils for cooked food such as fishballs, crab stick, mushroom balls. This is to prevent cross-contamination and to save yourself from running to the restroom later on.

#5 Put the vegetables in first

The veggies flavour the soup and make it sweeter! Vegetables such as potatoes, radishes, carrots and corn take a longer time to cook. Starchy items like noodles may thicken your broth, so do add those in only when you’re almost done.

#6 Pick up all the pieces of meat

You reach for that piece of fish that you see floating, only to have it break into pieces when you grab it with your chopsticks. Do everyone a favour and pick up all the pieces! Leaving the remains of any food behind would cloud the soup, which may lead to a buildup of disintegrated food remains.

#7 Do not take the food that others cooked for themselves

To avoid such a situation, place the meat in the ladle and lower it into the soup to let it cook. The meat will not float away, and others who have seen you doing this will know that that is yours. Unless it has been determined at the beginning of the meal that all food that goes into the soup is shared, it is best to avoid ‘stealing’ someone else’s food.

You'll be surprised, some people keep track.

#8 Ask if everyone is okay with pouring an egg into the soup

Some people just don’t like eggs in their soup.

#9 Offer your friends food

Especially if they’re next to you and certain food items are out of reach to them. This makes the entire meal a more enjoyable one as everyone would be able to get a taste of everything without having to awkwardly reach across someone’s face.

#10 Hygiene

Pouring excess soup from your bowl back into the main pot is a huge no no. Not only is this gross, but it is unhygienic as well.

#11 ‘Wash’ your chopsticks

If you do not have an extra set of utensils for the raw food, dip your chopsticks into the soup to ‘wash’ it after taking raw food. The heat would kill off any raw substances that may contaminated other foods.

#12 Share

If you are putting general items, such as fishballs, vegetables or crabsticks, into the soup, ask if anyone else would like some as well. That way, everyone would be able to enjoy their food faster instead of having to pass the box of food around and having them put the food in individually.

#13 Eat slowly!

Having steamboat usually happens when a group of friends or family gather to catch up and to enjoy a meal together. Rushing through your meal not only makes you seem impatient, but it may seem as though you cannot wait to leave. Talk, laugh and enjoy the entire meal together, especially during this festive period. It’s definitely a meal worth going slow for.

Brenda Loo

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13 Tips for a delicious steamboat meal