elfs | Now that's slow food...

Last night as an experiment I decided to make Chinese hot-pot, creating a large spread of briefly seared but otherwise raw steak and chicken sliced very thinly, along with another of zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower heads, and a couple of sesame-based sauces, one sweet, one salty. For Kouryou-chan's sake, I also threw in a traditional honey mustard-- although not as good as usual; I didn't decrystallize the honey beforehand, and I used mayonnaise instead of sour cream. She didn't seem to mind. The broth I used was a quart of my home-made chicken stock, lightly salted with Thai fish sauce.

It took forever to eat, and everyone got to dip their spears into the hot pot. We were at the table for an hour, with plenty of time to talk about school, or work, or whatever. Which makes for a very nice family ritual. I may try for something more esoteric next time, and a better selection of sauces. I'm big on making sauces and dressings myself these days, especially since I have mastered the fine art of emulsification.