There’s one thing everyone looks forward to every Chinese New Year – a family reunion dinner with classic Chinese hotpot or better known as steamboat! There’re a lot of things to consider when planning for a steamboat party; from dietary restrictions to utensils needed.
To ease your planning process and enjoy a stress-free reunion dinner, we’ve created a free steamboat ingredients shopping checklist for you to refer to when you’re doing your Chinese New Year grocery run!
Before You Start Purchasing
- Assess Your Fridge & Pantry: Look inside your fridge and pantry to see what ingredients you currently have at home. Have a list of your existing food items so you won’t end up overbuying!
Also check out of StyleMag: How To Organize Your Fridge & Keep It Clean
- Recall Who’ll Be There: The number of guests will give you a rough estimate of how much ingredients and utensils you’ll need to prepare. If your guests are big eaters, consider purchasing more ingredients. For kids, consider what types of food they enjoy eating, for e.g, sausages and seaweed chicken.
- Be Mindful Of Dietary Restrictions: Check with your family and guests if they have any dietary restrictions, preferences or allergies. You can let them look through the list of ingredients you’ll be preparing to see if they’re okay with it.
Steamboat & Hot-Pot Essentials Checklist
To enjoy a fuss-free and smooth reunion dinner with your family, ensure that you have these essentials set up and ready on your dining table.
For Guests
To save you the trouble of washing all the dishes after dinner, opt for eco-friendly disposable utensils! Your guests can easily dispose of it after they’re done.
Ensure that all your guests have their own dinnerware and that serving spoons are provided. Sharing utensils shouldn’t be allowed as it increases the risk of any form of virus spreading.
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Coastal Plate & Bowl Dinnerware$3.90 – $13.50 -
Anti-fall Stainless Steel Steamboat Soup Ladle$8.90 – $17.30 -
Oishii Wooden Chopsticks (5pc Family Set)$9.80 -
2-in-1 Soup Ladle$4.90 – $13.90
For Communal Use
Steamboat dinners can be rather messy especially when with seafood shells and spilled broths. Place tissue papers and a tabletop mini dustbin on the dining table – your guests can easily dispose of the shells in the bin and clean themselves up with the tissue!
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Clarity Self-Rising Tissue & Mask Box$14.80 -
Slim Desk & Tabletop Dustbin (With Lid)$4.90 – $11.20
For Plating & Prep Work
Always rinse and soak vegetables to get rid of any dirt before plating them. To free up space on your dining table so your guests can eat comfortably, our range of Steamboat Essentials are life-saviours!
Browse Steamboat Essentials for a fuss-free reunion dinner.
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Steely™ Nesting Mixing Bowl & Strainer Set$18.80 – $45.20 -
Minimalist Colander & Strainer$9.90 -
Sliding Steamboat & Hotpot Dining Plates$18.90 – $70.99 -
Stackable Steamboat Platter (With Drainer)$4.80
Steamboat & Hot-Pot Ingredients Checklist
There’s a variety of ingredients for you to choose from when planning for a steamboat party. You should try getting at least 3 diverse options per food category to allow your guests to customise their own meals!
Download our free Steamboat Ingredients A4 printable here.
Broths:
Choosing the right type of broth is important when you’re planning a steamboat party. It’s important to choose a broth that you and your guests will enjoy. As you add the various ingredients, the broth will be more flavourful.
Pro tip! The checklist below is interactive, tick the checkboxes as you are grocery shopping.
Types:
Add-Ons:
Meats
An essential ingredient to your steamboat meal is meat – it affects the depth of the broth’s flavour. Opt for thinner meat slices as it’ll cook faster. For more variety, you can consider adding thicker meat such as beef, processed meat and offals.
Vegetables
Include some fibres to your steamboat to help you digest all your food. Vegetables balance out the meaty steamboat and add flavour to the soup stock. Consider preparing more leafy vegetables as they tend to shrink once it’s dipped in the soup. For root vegetables, slice them into smaller pieces so it’ll cook faster.
Leafy Greens:
Root Vegetables:
Serve up food conveniently and free up space on the dining table our Scandinavian Shelf Trolley which has adjustable shelves to suit your needs.
Mushrooms:
Seafood
Add layers of richness to your soup broth by including seafood in your hotpot. For shelled seafood, make sure to clean and filter the dirt thoroughly. You might want to keep this seafood in the strainer in case it breaks apart while cooking.
Carbohydrates
To relieve yourself from the rich broth, pair the steamboat/hotpot dish with some carbohydrates such as rice or noodles.
Others
Give yourself a refreshing dining experience by including some interesting ingredients to jazz up your steamboat ingredient list.
Sauces
Dipping sauces are a must for steamboat! To enjoy seafood, you can try dipping it in Sa Cha sauce – it’s made from fish paste and various spices. You can also mix 300g of ginger and 5 tablespoons of water to create ginger dip – best served with prawn or fish.
Ready for your steamboat reunion dinner? Save yourself from last-minute stress ingredient shopping by downloading our A4 printable checklist here!
While preparing and enjoying your reunion dinner, keep some of these hot-pot rules in mind to ensure a safe gathering for your family!
10 Hot-pot Rules For A Fun & Safe Gathering
Rule #1: Use the communal chopstick or ladle/strainer to retrieve your food from the soup or sauces.
Rule #2: Remember to use different utensils for raw food – this is to prevent any cross-contamination from occurring.
Rule #3: Wait until the broth starts boiling before cooking.
Rule #4: Check that your food is cooked thoroughly before eating!
Rule #5: Add a small amount of food at each time.
Rule #6: If someone just added a raw ingredient, don’t take out your food straight away.
Rule #7: Don’t mix soup bases – Use different utensils for different broths.
Rule #8: Only cook the food you plan to eat.
Rule #9: Don’t take food that someone else put into the broth.
Rule #10: Check with the people you are eating with on the “rules”.
Learn some hotpot tips and tricks in our video here.
And there we have it – the ultimate checklist to get you ready for a seamless and comfortable reunion dinner experience with your loved ones!
What are some of your must-have ingredients whenever you have a steamboat dinner? Let us know in the comments below!
