Culture is not always shown through values, manners, language, or in festivals. Some can be discovered through our stomach. Food is one of way expressing are characteristics and distinct communal charm. It identifies nation from another. Through food, people can actually experience the culture of another and connect with them even without personally visiting the country. So if one would like to discover something from a culture first hand without the opportunity of visiting it, the fastest way is to eat their popular food and have a glimpse of what it is like to be in a particular place.
Steamboat meals is one of the dishes that shows distinct cultural personality. Steamboat meals or hotpot visualizes Asian culture. From the setting to the variety of ingredients. Every element of the dining experience mirror a certain character that one can actually experience or feel when they visit places in Asia and in China.
A typical steamboat setting can be imagined as a festive meal where a huge pot with a simmering soup stock in. It is surrounded with plates of raw ingredients of different food such as thin slices of meat, vegetables like cabbage, seafood, meat balls, corn, tomatoes, mushrooms and the likes. People enjoy this dish placing food on their plate fresh and hot.
It is a festive cuisine shed by the culture of the old generation. It reflects how elders walk their way to the market and look for the fresh, healthy, and varied food dishes that they could cook and serve to their loved ones at home. It is originally a comfort food seen at home being shared by the family members. Hence, it is an interactive meal that can be easily prepared by elders in hosting a family dinner. With a soup stock and other raw ingredients, they are ready to fill in the dining table with a good family quality moment.
Steamboat, today, has reached other parts of the world introducing the rich flavour of the cuisine together with the rich culture from which the festive dish originates. It serves as a piece of the world map for others to discover and later on explore for themselves.
There are also steamboat buffet, delivery and catering in the modern day and age. The traditional cuisine has adapted the modern way of celebrating things and conventional dining experience. It saves people the time of going into the market and picking out the raw ingredients needed. Now, steamboat can be ordered and enjoyed by a circle of friends and family.
The cultured shared by the cuisine has been welded with the modern way of dining. People can now have a taste of Asian cultured right at their very homes through the steamboat delivery services offered by different companies in the food industry supplying fresh raw ingredients and preserving the recipe. Hence, it is like delivering the rich flavor and culture of a nation to the homes and places with festive celebrations.
