LUXOMME

Hot pot is one of those things that you can sit hours for, slowly enjoying the food and the company. It's also a dinner event which forces you into conversations and creates a sharing environment which quickly becomes absolute mayhem. With people throwing ingredients in and people taking them out at the same time, it's messy business, but the more chaotic it becomes, the more relaxing it feels.




For those of you who have never had hotpot, it's essentially Asian fondue, where you put together an assortment of items and cook it as you go. It makes for a long drawn out dinner process where you can sit and mingle with friends for hours.



Typical items include meats, seafood, dumplings, vegetables, and assorted tofu products which you dip into a wonderful concoction of sauces you pre-mix beforehand. It's fun, it's casual and it's personal.






Slowly working our way through the food, we found ourselves left with a ton of leftovers and feeling exceedingly full. The girls moved over to the couches and played TABOO and charades, while the boys stayed on to help polish the last things off.

Between long work days and my need to sleep, I don't get the chance to get people together like this often. In fact, I don't think I've done anything like this since my university days, which seems like eons ago. I was planning on heading back to Hong Kong for CNY this year, and was disappointed when I wasn't able to leave because of work, but I'm glad we were all able to share in this night together.

Despite this being a fun filled month so far, work asides, I'm still not loving February because of the cold. Let's hope it goes by a little quicker.

naomi