Of all the dinners in the year, the reunion steamboat asks the least of its cook and gives the most to its table. The work is done before anyone arrives. After that, the pot sits in the middle and everyone cooks for themselves, reaching in, fishing things out, arguing happily about whose slice is whose. The host gets to sit. For a night built on togetherness, there is no better design.
Miss A's Handpick Fine Food is a Singapore premium grocer founded in 2017, online at missa.sg with a store at 421 East Coast Road. A steamboat is only ever as good as what is bought for it, so here is the buying, in the order the pot will need it.
Start with the broth, because everyone drinks it
By the end of the night, the broth is the dish — two hours of everything that went through it, concentrated. So it deserves a real beginning. Our whole organic chicken, poached gently to start the pot, gives the stock body and sweetness that water alone never finds. The bird itself is a heritage French breed — French Poulet is the breed's name, not its birthplace: the chicks are flown in from France, and the chickens are raised on a farm in Malaysia for a minimum of 60 days, on a 100% vegetarian diet, antibiotics free, with no growth hormone, never caged. Poach it first, lift it out, carve it for the table — the chicken has two roles in this dinner and plays both. Find it in the Organic Chicken collection, and everything for the pot in the Hot Pot collection.
The swish: slices that cook in seconds
The pleasure of steamboat is the swish — a slice held in the broth for ten to twenty seconds, no more. Spanish Iberico pork collar, sliced for shabu, is made for exactly this; the marbling keeps it tender through the brief heat, and it comes out silky. King salmon cut for the pot wants even less — under a minute, until it just turns opaque; our Akaroa fish lands fresh every Wednesday and Saturday, so a reunion order timed to an arrival day eats it at its best. Lay the raw things out beautifully and in family-sized amounts; a steamboat table should look abundant before it looks anything else. The collar and its companions are in the Hot Pot collection; the salmon is in the King Salmon collection.
Something gold, for the year ahead
Every reunion table carries a wish or two, and the loveliest one we know is edible: golden ear mushrooms, when the season brings them — a Yunnan mushroom the colour of good fortune, with a gentle, gelatinous bite that takes to broth kindly. Fresh porcini and himematsutake join the pot in their season too; the Mushrooms collection shows what is in. Cook the mushrooms early, before the meat goes in, and they will quietly enrich every bowl that follows.
And the last bowl
When the table slows down, cook the noodles — or ladle the broth, now deep and savoury, over rice. That final bowl is the one people remember on the drive home. Reunion dinners are not really about abundance. They are about everyone reaching into the same pot. Buy well for it, sit down with your family, and let the pot do the rest.
FAQ
How much should I buy per person?
Steamers graze rather than dine, but reunion appetites are real: roughly 200–300g of raw ingredients per person across the meats, fish and mushrooms, plus the chicken, is a generous table. Leftovers from a steamboat reheat kindly the next day.
When should the order land?
Time the fresh fish to a Wednesday or Saturday arrival, as close to the dinner as the calendar allows — and remember there are no deliveries on Sundays or public holidays. The frozen and pantry pieces can come earlier in the week.
Can the chicken broth be made a day ahead?
Yes — poach the chicken and strain the broth the day before; it keeps well, and the fat lifts off cleanly once chilled. Reheat gently on the night and the pot is ready when the family is.
