Hot pot anyone?

[TurtleMeng]

I am guessing you are talking about "Xiao Fei Yang."  If so, they have them throughout BJ and are very good, though I'm surprised they are coming to the US (and it seems LA would be a strange place to open up a hotpot restaurant).  Are you sure the sauce was satay paste?  This seems very unusual and a typical Northern hotpot sauce would be a sesame paste base (zhima jiang), the bean curd, chives and cilantro, and a few other things to the eater's pleasure.  As I've said before, I love eating hotpot with people from around China because its interesting to see regional differences, to me egg in hotpot (or dipping sauce) is sacreligious, but thats because I'm used to the Beijing/Mongolian style.

I think the satay sauce is an adaption, since most hot pot places have them. But most Chinese that go there to eat do not even use any sauce.

Xiao Fei Yang (little lamb) starts, then the imitators: Xiao Mian Yang (still little lamb), Mongolian Fei Yang...sigh.

Ha ha. LA has its cold days, like now. I think mainly the reason is for the HUGE Chinese population here. Most of the time when I see something starting in China, I would see it come to LA in less than half a year.

[dmreed]

Maybe I am not looking hard enough, but in the Calgary superstore, I can not find any thinly sliced meat. A reason might be that we got a little China town and some Chinese groceries store spread around the city. I prefer to slice the popular meat like beef and chicken myself since it is cheaper but I will buy the lamb since only I will touch it. The trick is to cut them while they are semi-frozen and sharpen the knife first.

why don't you simply ask the butcher at the Chinese store to slice the meat for you? I use beef eye of round for Vietnamese pho...I simply ask the butcher to slice it about 1/16" thick. for hot pot ask for paper thin slicing.

[dmreed]

I recent ate at a Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant in the San Diego, CA area. I ordered the half and half (1/2 mild and 1/2 spicy broth in a divided pot). the metal pot sat on an induction heater flush with and in the middle of the table. herbs and spices were in the broth and there were no dipping sauces. it was great and I look forward to dining there again soon.

[liuzhou]

Xiao Fei Yang is all over China. They have about 700 outlets. And they sell their thinly sliced lamb in almost every supermarket.

Edited February 20, 2009 by liuzhou (log)

[Peter Green]

I recent ate at a Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant in the San Diego, CA area. I ordered the half and half (1/2 mild and 1/2 spicy broth in a divided pot). the metal pot sat on an induction heater flush with and in the middle of the table. herbs and spices were in the broth and there were no dipping sauces. it was great and I look forward to dining there again soon.

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MI units are the way to go for table top hot-potting. I'm convinced of it now. No gas canisters to worry about, and instant on-off.

Since picking up the MI unit last summer, and the ying-yang pot just before that, we've taken to doing hot point any time the fridge starts getting too full of stuff.

As said earlier, there aren't any skills involved (which fits my competencies), just a really sharp knife.

This time it was beef tripe, bamboo, shitakes, button mushrooms, brocolli, cabbage, carrots, beans, and some other stuff we dragged kicking and screaming out of the back of the crisper section.

Maybe I'll pick up some lamb for tomorrow......

[Magictofu]

Xiao Fei Yang is all over China. They have about 700 outlets. And they sell thier thinly sliced lamb in almost every supermarket.

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They even recently opened a franchise in sleepy Ottawa, Canada! We ate there for the chinese new year. I was not expecting much but it was quite good, particularly their herbal broth.

My partner prefers sichuan style hot pot.

[faine]

Any killer hot pot places in San Francisco? Hot pot all the time is probably the numero uno thing I miss about China. Of course we're capable of doing it on our own, but the restaurant experience is always such a hoot...

[Batard]

Xiao Fei Yang is all over China. They have about 700 outlets. And they sell thier thinly sliced lamb in almost every supermarket.

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Thanks for the reference. I ate at one of their locations in Tai'an and could never remember the name of the place. I have to say, compared to the other places I've eaten in China, the hot pot there was just Meh. I think we were the only group in the place.

[liuzhou]

I think we were the only group in the place.

I'm amazed. The branch here in town is packed every night and it is one of the few restaurants where it is essential to book a table - at least three days ahead. If you turn up late, your table has gone.

Edited February 20, 2009 by liuzhou (log)

[nakedsushi]

I LOVE hotpot. It's such a great and easy meal to make at home for company. But it has to be close company who don't mind dipping their chopsticks into the same pot =)

Here's a recent hot pot we made with store-bought spicy szechuan broth. I couldn't read the instructions for the package of broth, so just added enough water to fill the pot. Maybe I should have added more. The broth was FACEMETLING.

The BF is vegan, so this was also a vegan hot pot.

A close up of the broth. The floating white things are dduk, Korean pounded rice sticks, kinda like niengao, but in a different shape.

[dmreed]

I LOVE hotpot. It's such a great and easy meal to make at home for company. But it has to be close company who don't mind dipping their chopsticks into the same pot =)

Here's a recent hot pot we made with store-bought spicy szechuan broth. I couldn't read the instructions for the package of broth, so just added enough water to fill the pot. Maybe I should have added more. The broth was FACEMETLING.

The BF is vegan, so this was also a vegan hot pot.

A close up of the broth. The floating white things are dduk, Korean pounded rice sticks, kinda like niengao, but in a different shape.

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great photos...wish I was there to join in!

just a suggestion...if you have queasy guests, provide everyone with those little dipping baskets with handles then every can insert/extract from/to plates and bowls without "contamination"...me I will happily eat your cooking and join in with chopsticks!

[dmreed]

I LOVE hotpot. It's such a great and easy meal to make at home for company. But it has to be close company who don't mind dipping their chopsticks into the same pot =)

Here's a recent hot pot we made with store-bought spicy szechuan broth. I couldn't read the instructions for the package of broth, so just added enough water to fill the pot. Maybe I should have added more. The broth was FACEMETLING.

The BF is vegan, so this was also a vegan hot pot.

A close up of the broth. The floating white things are dduk, Korean pounded rice sticks, kinda like niengao, but in a different shape.

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oops...I forgot to ask what store-bought broth you used...do you have a picture of the package?

[nakedsushi]

I LOVE hotpot. It's such a great and easy meal to make at home for company. But it has to be close company who don't mind dipping their chopsticks into the same pot =)

Here's a recent hot pot we made with store-bought spicy szechuan broth. I couldn't read the instructions for the package of broth, so just added enough water to fill the pot. Maybe I should have added more. The broth was FACEMETLING.

oops...I forgot to ask what store-bought broth you used...do you have a picture of the package?

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I finally got a picture of the store-bought broth:

[liuzhou]

Strange. It says Sichuan Hotpot, but the hotpot they show is Northern Chinese /Mongolian style.

[Hest88]

My mom makes the best hot pots, in part because she marinates all the meat in advance. I don't know anyone else who bothers, but of course my mom's method gives it all the extra boost of flavor.

[dmreed]

I LOVE hotpot. It's such a great and easy meal to make at home for company. But it has to be close company who don't mind dipping their chopsticks into the same pot =)

Here's a recent hot pot we made with store-bought spicy szechuan broth. I couldn't read the instructions for the package of broth, so just added enough water to fill the pot. Maybe I should have added more. The broth was FACEMETLING.

oops...I forgot to ask what store-bought broth you used...do you have a picture of the package?

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I finally got a picture of the store-bought broth:

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how does the broth compare to restaurant or home-made broth?

the reason I ask is because there are a couple of Vietnamese Pho broths which are OK in a pinch/hurry (in fact, my wife and I have bowls of pho made from a package soup mix with noodles several times a week about 5am) but they do not really compare to a good pho restaurant broth.