Tasty Hot Pot

Have you ever tried hot pot before?

Hot pot is very popular in China and you can find it in many restaurants in China all season long, not just when the weather is cold. I know there are a few Chinese restaurants in New Jersey serve hot pot in the winter, but the taste is just so-so. Actually, tastes of foods in most Chinese restaurants are not genuine (obviously). So every time we are in China, while relaxing and visiting family members and friends, one main task for us is to enjoy real Chinese cuisine and one of our favorites is hot pot.

At this restaurant we went last week, each one has his/her own pot, instead of big pot in the center of the table. In this way, we can each choose our own flavor.

Before ordering the main entry, we first got a cup of green tea, which is very popular in China, and a small bowl of chicken soup. In China, nobody uses teabags (like those Lipton teabags). Instead, we prefer to have the actual leaves in the cup. As you can see, it’s one cup of tea, but full with tea leaves.

You can put almost everything cook-able in the hot pot. Raw meat (beef or lamb, but not pork), fish, shrimp, vegetables, tofu, anything you can think of. Here our choice is beef. The beef, either lean or with a little fat, is sliced very thin, so thin that only a few seconds after putting it in the pot and stirring a little bit with chopsticks (after the meat turned from red to white), it’s ready to be served. That’s why we call it shuàn (more like rinse), not actually cook.

In addition to beef, we also ordered a few kinds of vegetables. Unlike beef, you can’t just rinse vegetables in the hot pot. They have to bee thoroughly cooked. Usually, we just put dump them in the pot and wait them to be ready. At the same time, we can just rinse the meat

Now, my hot pot is boiling and it’s time to enjoy the food. My choice of the hot pot stew is numb and spicy (má là) with lot of chili oil. Usually, the soup base isn’t just water. Most of the time, it’s made from chicken or pig broth for better taste. My wife had a seafood hot pot.

Since hot pot requires the minimum amount of preparation and cooking, eating at restaurants specializing in hot pot is usually cheaper than other restaurants. The total cost for this four-person meal is just RMB 160, or about $25. Not expensive, but sure delicious and tasty