reunion dinner - to usher in the ox

this year's reunion dinner is more complete than last year's and previous years'; this year, after a lapse of five years, ivy is able to stay on for the reunion dinner. except for her first year of studies when she managed to spend the lunar new year with us, all the other years she had either visited in june or, if she visited at the end of the year, she would have to rush back to melbourne because of her studies. now that she has started working, she is able to take leave.

as has been the practice over the years, my brother's family of five and my youngest sister lynn join us at the reunion table with my mother. my 86-year old mother, who stays with one of my sisters, will spend the last day of the old lunar year and the first day of the new year at my place.

we have been having steamboat dinner for a number of years. this year, we cut down on the amount and number of food items because the year before we had quite a lot of leftovers. the stock for the steamboat soup came from pork ribs which was bought from ben's. not all ingredients were raw; some like the quail eggs and the fish balls - bought fresh - were pre-cooked.

these days, you can get thinly sliced meat done the shabu style from the supermarket. this makes preparation much easier. we do not marinate the raw meat at all. other items that ended up in the hot pot included chicken meat, prawns, scallops, fresh squids, prawnballs, shrimp wonton, stuffed tofu balls and cheese sausages.

the vegetables that went into the soup were tung oh, local leaf, long cabbage and inoki mushroom.

another 'tradition' of sort is the cleaning of the gaps between the tiles in my flat. my brother's family members and my sister would get down on their fours, use the wonder sponge to whiten the gaps.