An evening at Mark's

I got an invitation last night to join Mark and a couple of friends over at his apartment for a meal and a couple of drinks. As I'd just got a light workout, I took a bath, got a fresh change of clothes and off I went.
I was greeted by a plethora of foodstuff, two steaming hot pots (locally known as steamboats) and great company.
First up, I had clear soup to line the stomach for the onslaught to come. As you can see, loads of veggies for all. The soup was SWEET!!!
Then onwards to the original Szechuan steamboat prepared by Charles' wife whom is from that province. The soup is made from herbs she brought from her hometown and the authenticity of the super oily soup is due to the weather conditions and lifestyle back in Szechuan. Everything we scooped off the pot was eaten off this special sauce which filled every bowl. It's true, Szechuan fare is as spicy as you hear it is.

Aside from the veggies, we also had processed "balls" and massive prawns (which cost RM120.00 just for a bunch) that I kinda sized up as lobsters!

It was a fantastic meal and its my first time having this style of steamboat out of China. It was an awesome meal and the company was great. All of us had cool drinks after and much chatting went on whilst some enjoyed themselves with the video games available.

Thanks for having us over Mark!

Sadly, the spices are hard to come by for everyday market-goers, but discussions are ongoing to maybe "spice things up" locally ;)