Directions Prepare Cooking Broth and Condiments.
Slice the chicken breast very thin.
Remove tough stems from the spinach; stack each 5 or 6 leaves together, then cut in 3 or 4 diagonal slices.
Slice the cabbage diagonally about 1 1/2 inches wide.
Slice fish.
Leave oysters and shrimp whole.
Slice pork very thin.
Bianch the chicken livers or kidneys and slice thin.
You can do all the necessary cooking, cutting, and arranging of these foods in bowls or on trays several hours in advance; cover and refrigerate.No more than 30 minutes before dinner, fry the translucent noodles, a few at a time, in salad oil heated to 390°; they will immediately puff and turn white (try out a few strands first, so that you will be prepared).
Remove at once and drain.
Wash the blossoms well and lay on the table near where the cooking pot will be.
Leave eggs in shells and put one at each guest's place.
Procedure for cooking at the table: Bring the cooking pot to the table containing about half of the hot broth (1 quart); surround it with containers of foods to be cooked.
There are two different ways to approach the cooking, depending partly upon how adept your guests are with chopsticks.
The traditional way is to pass the dishes of food so each guest can take onto his plate some of each.
Using chopsticks, each puts his own meat, vegetables, and noodles into the simmering broth; and, when done to his liking, removes them to his plate, then dips each morsel in the condiments.
Or, for a faster start to this meal, the hostess can put into the pot about half of each of the ingredients, keeping foods as separate from each other as possible, cover the pan, and let the ingredients cook about 5 minutes.
Guests then serve themselves.
When all the foods have been cooked, add the flower petals to the rich stock remaining.
Each guest can then either beat an egg in his soup bowl and ladle some of the hot broth over it; or and this is a real trick break his egg into the cooking pot, poach it, and remove it to his plate with chopsticks.
