I'm not suggesting this for your party, but I would like to put out there that, if you have a fondue pot, a fish-and-seafood fondue is lovely for 5 or 6 people (provided they all like fish-and-seafood, of course). The only inconvenience is that instead of fondue forks everyone will need a little basket-on-a-handle to cook their fish; you can get these in Chinese stores.
You need:
- a fish/seafood stock. You can buy this of course, but I make my own: every time I serve lovely fresh crustaceans - shrimps, prawns, crab, lobster - I gather up the shells and boil them down into stock. Even if there's only a little stock, into my freezer it goes till I have a serious amount of it, in which case I toss up whether to make an epic fish soup or have a fondue.
- cubes of several kinds of raw fish (solid kinds, that won't flake and fall apart in the broth); some raw prawns or other crustaceans; some raw mussels and/or whatever other seafood is good where you live.
- plenty of steamed rice.
- relishes such as lemony mayo, Thai-style dip, tomato-and-capers: basically whatever you like to team with fish.
You get down and dirty with this just as you would with a meat-and-broth fondue, taking some rice to eat with it. Of course, as you cook all the fish and seafood in it, the stock is getting richer and richer. When there's no fish left, you can pour the stock over the rest of the rice and finish it up. (And if everyone is already too full up to do that, you have a marvellous fish soup to enjoy the next day.)