Chinese hot pot

Jorn asked me Sunday morning while we were eating left over Thai food whether or not we would be eating exclusively with chopsticks at my house in less than two weeks. His comment made me realize how close I am to being home, and how much I have missed Chinese food this year. Nothing I can make personally compares to the diversity of my mom and grandma's home cooking. Speaking of food...

Sunday night after a whole afternoon of practicing for the St. Bavo Christmas concert, I finally got to sit down and start stuffing myself full of hotpot. Maybe one of the only good things to come out of the boatweek was that I got to know this girl Yu Fang, and two other Chinese guys Xiao Ye and Zhi Fang. We went over to Yu Fang and Ambeika's (sp?) nice apt, and Xiao Ye who is an expert cook set us to work preparing the hotpot. It was Jorn and Daniel's first experience with hotpot, so it was fun to see their reaction. We ended up eating 1kg of pork, a lot of beef, white asparagus, nian gao (new year's cake), tofu, cabbagey stuff, little sausages, sliced potatoes, and white fish. It was so delicious I thought I was going to explode. I kept rationing water for myself (to fight off the spiciness) so I would have more room in my stomach. Afterwards we ate ice cream and dispersed into the night..Ambieka promises to make Saag Paneer or some Indian dish from the south next time. HOORAY.

I realized that not only do I miss Chinese food, but I also miss sitting around the dinner table for hours taking small breaks in between gorging and talking. There is a social aspect that is too short to be satisfying in my normal eating habits.

Next time it's gonna look like this:


Also, my new resolution is to learn how to play badminton.
Note to self: ask Xiao Ye where to get hotpot stock.