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Hot pot anyone?


haide

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Cooler weather is upon us (here in HK)!

Time to get the ol' tabletop stove out for hot pot. (For those new to this, this is traditional Chinese cuisine is known as "huo guo" in mandarin - "fire stove", and "dah been lo" in cantonese - "hit side of pot". Delicious stock sits bubbling in the middle of the table, plates of raw stuff is laid out around the table and people pick what they want to eat and give it a quick swish/good boil. Popular items are slices of lamb, sirloin, fish, tofu, turnip all types of veges, seafood. Similar in spirit to Swiss fondue, Japanese nabe).

Holding one at my house for friends this weekend, fishing for good ideas here.

I'll be heading to the wet market on the day, thinking of getting some of these:

protein:

- super thin-sliced japanese marble beef

- shrimps (if I can find ones that are still swimming in the tank)

- blocks of fresh tofu

- balls: plain as well as with filling. fish, squid, beef, pork, liondog roll (a Japanese fishcake), leng yu (fresh fish).

- meen gun (I think translated as fried gluten, yum yum)

carbs:

- home-made shanghainese wonton (pork & cabbage) ~ star of the evening

- udon

- fun see (rice vermicelli)

fibre:

- chinese cabbage

- bak choi

- various other greens

- turnip (super duper flavour comes out when cooked soft)

flavours & stuff (in little bowls on the side):

- diced spring onion

- diced red hot chilli pepper

- diced ginger

- diced garlic

- coriander / cilantro

- soy

- vinegar (zhejiang dark vinegar, canto clear rice vinegar)

- nam pla (thai fish sauce)

- satay sauce

- guilin chilli oil

drinks:

- ice cold beer

- hot ginger honey

- mandarin tea (candied orange slices)

- green tea

- coke and the various other usual ones

post-dinner (thinking of something not so heavy):

- grapes, oranges

- bday cake. still trying to decide what to bake / whether to buy.

Wanted to do dips and chips in the beginning, but this really sounds like a lot of food already... What else to finish with?

Heaven - steaming bowl of perfectly slippery flat rice noodles, coriander, spring onions, thin slices of marbled beef, hot hot hot broth...

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If you have a pot with a divider, might want to get some different flavour soup going at the same time. I am really lazy so I just make a basic stock with left over bones and vegetable then pour bottled sauce into it. Since I assume you are not making hot pot with water only so the stock part should be done already. Satay sauce is easy to find and what is better than meen gun and fried bean curd soaking up all those spicy soup. :wub:

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We've had a lot of hot pot threads on here and what I always enjoy about hot potting together with friends is that it truly shows the diversity between regions in China. To me, hot pot is a broth with lamb, some cabbage, spinach, and noodles which are then dipped into a mixture of sesame paste/soy/chili oil and whatever else the person likes. Thats how we do it in the North, but then there is, of course, the Chongqing/Sichuan hot pot, or those from the South who would add egg, etc etc and it was interesting to see the different things a grocer would offer for hotpot in Liuzhou. I think hot pot is one of the few "nationwide" dishes in China and even beyond that, each family sort of does it their own way.

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I will share my favorite hot pot story. Shortly after I moved to Cleveland, my husband and I invited his best friend David to have hot pot at the Bo Loong restaurant in Chinatown. We explained the pot of hot stock and the platter of raw goodies to be cooked in it, and the pile of noodles at the bottom of the raw plate for the final cup of noodle soup.

The waiters brought out the stock and set it on the table, then returned with the goodie platter. Sitting atop the platter were 3 blue crabs. As the platter was set down, we realized that one of the crabs was not fully dispatched yet, and was gently waving one claw back and forth in the air, as if waving hello (or goodbye) to us.

Well, as soon as David saw the crab moving, he turned white as a sheet, and in a voice email cannot fully capture, said, "please forgive me if I skip directly to the noodle portion of the meal". He was a good sport, but could not bring himself to eat a bite -- too bad, because the food was really good! Bob and I had a lot of leftovers and a great story!

"Life is Too Short to Not Play With Your Food" 

My blog: Fun Playing With Food

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If you had leftover broth at the end of the meal, I like to add rice, crack a couple of eggs, scallions and seaweed and make congee. It's not strictly a Chinese way of doing it, I've only seen it done in Japanese and Korean restaurants but it's something I've picked up that have gotten rave reviews.

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and was gently waving one claw back and forth in the air, as if waving hello (or goodbye) to us. 

Gosh, that is too funny! A bit sad at the same time... though having watched my grandma send many a crab to their delicious destiny, I'm not too queasy about these things.

Hot pot was a success! Laid out all the food on a little trolley and it looked like we were about to feed a famished army. Bought everything fresh on the day from the wet market close to "goose neck bridge". Great stuff.

In the end, someone brought delicate Japanese pastries for dessert. Tiny chocolate tarts; lemon mousse pastry stacks; coffee cream cakes; custard and puff pastry towers... yum yum yum :raz:

Heaven - steaming bowl of perfectly slippery flat rice noodles, coriander, spring onions, thin slices of marbled beef, hot hot hot broth...

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  • 1 month later...

Well, it's not really NEW, but the LITTLE LAMB has opened 3 (maybe 4) restaurants in Los Angesles. It's directly transplanated from China. It's the Chinese Hot Pot without a Dipping Sauce. The broth is simmered with multiple herbs so anything you cook in it comes out flavored already. Supposedly these herbs can warm you up also. (Unfortunatley one of the ingredients in it definitely tastes like MSG)

I wonder if other cities in US already have it. If you are visiting LA, consider trying a meal (esp on a cold day, rare but it DOES happen). I had the same thing in Shanghai, pretty much "authetic".

"Mom, why can't you cook like the iron chef?"
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I'm assuming that you mean a huge pot in the middle of the table and you're dipping bits of food to be cooked in the broth? In Cantonese this would be called 'Ta-pin-lo' and like, there are spiced versions like Szechuan style etc...

...but without a dipping sauce, I simply do not see the point. The dipping sauce is like the ultimate accessory...

...like a pearl necklace without a neck to put it around, why eat stuff out of the broth and not be able to enhance it as you wish??...

...sorry for being emotional (I'm not really) but you really do need at least ginger/spring onion (cilantro)/soy/sesame/red chilli in a dipping bowl next to you... or Sriracha, whatever...

I don't believe it possible to enjoy a 'hot pot' without dipping sauce of SOME KIND!

"Coffee and cigarettes... the breakfast of champions!"

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The Real Canadian Superstore in our small city of 44,000 is gearing up for Chinese New Year. They have always handled a good variety of basic Chinese groceries and vegetables. Yesterday, I found a whole array of frozen, vaccum-sealed packets of thinly sliced meats ready for the hot pot: lamb, chicken, beef, pork and pork liver. I thought they were a bit pricy, but considering that we have many young international students from China without any prep. and cooking skills, this will be ideal for them.

I love dipping my food into different complementary sauces after cooking. Wouldn't everything at The Little Lamb all taste the same as it comes out of the broth?

My students all seem to use the red vinegar as a main dip, not only for dumplings, but . . . Whenever we've had shopping trips to Winnipeg, our main source of everything ethnic, they would lug home at least 6 bottles each! :rolleyes:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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The Real Canadian Superstore in our small city of 44,000 is gearing up for Chinese New Year. They have always handled a good variety of basic Chinese groceries and vegetables. Yesterday, I found a whole array of frozen, vaccum-sealed packets of thinly sliced meats ready for the hot pot: lamb, chicken, beef, pork and pork liver. I thought they were a bit pricy, but considering that we have many young international students from China without any prep. and cooking skills, this will be ideal for them.

I love dipping my food into different complementary sauces after cooking.  Wouldn't everything at The Little Lamb all taste the same as it comes out of the broth?

My students all seem to use the red vinegar as a main dip, not only for dumplings, but . . .  Whenever we've had shopping trips to Winnipeg, our main source of everything ethnic, they would lug home at least 6 bottles each!  :rolleyes:

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.

I now own a pot with a divider so one side is satay while the other one is usually cilantro and thousand year egg. Normally, I don't find the need to dip my food since they already gained so much flavor from the broth. Although my friends' favorite dipping sauce is made from raw eggs, soya sauce, chili, sesame oil, green onion, and satay sauce. They each use up 3-5 eggs during the meal...........

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I thought they were a bit pricy, but considering that we have many young international students from China without any prep. and cooking skills, this will be ideal for them.

My gosh, hot pot doesn't require any cooking skill. All it takes is to be good at using a knief to slice up the ingredients. :rolleyes:

Reminds me of one of my college roommates. For one year we stayed in the same apartment, every night he cooked a Ramen noodle with 3 to 4 chicken wings (raw, no seasoning) just thrown in to the boiling water to be cooked with the noodle. Yikes!

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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I thought they were a bit pricy, but considering that we have many young international students from China without any prep. and cooking skills, this will be ideal for them.

My gosh, hot pot doesn't require any cooking skill. All it takes is to be good at using a knief to slice up the ingredients. :rolleyes:

EXACTLY :wink: Try to imagine someone who has probably never handled a knife until they came abroad to study! On top of that, can you imagine them slicing a piece of jiggly meat paper thin? :shock:

My students tell me that they are learning how to cook by talking to Mom while they are preparing their meals. I am thinking of giving a course on basic cooking along with their academic studies.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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....

I love dipping my food into different complementary sauces after cooking.  Wouldn't everything at The Little Lamb all taste the same as it comes out of the broth?....

Well, actually they DO offer dipping sauces @ Little Lamb, at least 4 of them.

Little Lamb is "Mongolian Hot Pot" (although there's a lot more restaurants in Shanghai) :shock: It's just diffrenet from Ta Pian Lu. The idea is that the broth has a semi medicinal taste to it. Does everything taste the same coming out of the pot...sort of, but it's a good taste.

The dipping sauces they have is very Northen--fermented bean curd, chives, sesame paste, satay sauce (the last one is not northern though)

I grew up with the regular hot pot. I like putting an egg in my dipping sauce too.

But again, this kind is just different. They also serve some noodle dishes @ Little Lamb, and Xiao Bing (the little hard bun things)

I am beginning to sound like Little Lamb rep...I just eat there on cold days. Besides, I still complain about the MSG and need to drink lots of hot tea with my meal.

"Mom, why can't you cook like the iron chef?"
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I thought they were a bit pricy, but considering that we have many young international students from China without any prep. and cooking skills, this will be ideal for them.

My gosh, hot pot doesn't require any cooking skill. All it takes is to be good at using a knief to slice up the ingredients. :rolleyes:

EXACTLY :wink: Try to imagine someone who has probably never handled a knife until they came abroad to study! On top of that, can you imagine them slicing a piece of jiggly meat paper thin? :shock:

My students tell me that they are learning how to cook by talking to Mom while they are preparing their meals. I am thinking of giving a course on basic cooking along with their academic studies.

I know this is out of topic but.... From my observation in the university, Chinese students are the most likely to bring a boxed lunch from home and heat it up. From the line up in front of the Microwave, I would say 80% of them are Asian. It is mostly lots of rice with some vegetable and chicken or pork. I am too cheap to pay $5.00 for a dish of teriyaki beef with rice that I could cook at home for around $1.00.

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I know this is out of topic but.... From my observation in the university, Chinese students are the most likely to bring a boxed lunch from home and heat it up. From the line up in front of the Microwave, I would say 80% of them are Asian. It is mostly lots of rice with some vegetable and chicken or pork. I am too cheap to pay $5.00 for a dish of teriyaki beef with rice that I could cook at home for around $1.00.

It's not just in the university. You will find it in the work place too. (e.g. in the company I work at) An engineer/executive making $100K a year saving $5? Yeah. But it's not so much about the money. More of it is about taste. After all, the same person will spend $20 (per person) on dim sum lunch on the weekends and $30/lb Australian lobster at dinner!

Hijack! Hijack! Oops...

Edited by hzrt8w (log)
W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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It's not so much saving money so much as they just can't handle the typical western deli/cafe type foods. Even though the chinese seem capable of eating every bodily part of every animal, a few slices of roast beef between some bread freak them out. Odd I know :P.

PS: I am a guy.

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Our teachers' staff room is inside of the general office for international students. I take wraps to school for lunch as I can handle and eat the lunch easily while correcting papers. The Chinese students ALL bring their own lunch of rice and whatever is left over from supper the night before. We too have a long line-up infront of the microwaves. The smell is usually tolerable . No one has brought in salty fish yet! :laugh:

Some of the students who live in residence have to eat the poor attempts at Chinese food in the cafeteria. No wonder they move out on their own once their stay for the term is up!

I was invited to a student hot pot party acouple years ago. They used a hot plate and a Dutch oven. The meat was crudely sliced so it took longer to cook. At least they knew enough to have more stock simmering on the stove.

Turtlemeng, any ideas as to what herbs they use in the broth?

What did they use to heat the hot pot?

I found it was hottest using charcoal, but that required my keeping the kitchen window open for ventilation. When it is -30C, it's not a good idea. :blink:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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A good quality portable gas stove is most appropriate and not to mention safe.

Charcoal, though, provides extra flavor from some of the smoke that inevitably ends up on the food... I know, I know, stating the obvious...

"Coffee and cigarettes... the breakfast of champions!"

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....Turtlemeng, any ideas as to what herbs they use in the broth?

What did they use to heat the hot pot?

I found it was hottest using charcoal, but that required my keeping the kitchen window open for ventilation. When it is -30C, it's not a good idea. :blink:

Gosh, first of all, I could only discern several of these herbs. Second, I am too lazy to get my husband's Herb Dictionary. I think I saw

党参

枸积

Gosh, the simplified Chinese input sucks

Lots of Garlic

All these herbs that people use to 进补 (sort of like extra nourishment, yang kind of stuff) in winter. (however, in summer they eat the same thing :wacko: )

No one uses charcoal here. All the pots are on the electric plate that you can adjust temperature quickly, and the plate is hidden underneath the table.

Convenience...

"Mom, why can't you cook like the iron chef?"
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They have over 700 restaurants in China... must be really popular.Seems like they have some shops in Hong Kong too, and they offer hot pot, lamb shao long bao, mongolian dumplings and shumai, and many other things to do with lamb.

Seems like the broth contains over 60 different herbal medicines:

桂圓 - I think this is dried longan

黨參 - dangs hen

當歸- Dang gui

枸杞 - the tiny red fruit(or is it a seed) that is shaped like rice grain

草果 - cao guo

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What did they use to heat the hot pot?

I found it was hottest using charcoal, but that required my keeping the kitchen window open for ventilation. When it is -30C, it's not a good idea. :blink:

I have a great respect for charcoal's ability to kill silently, after I tried to grill a steak on a hibachi, placed under a range hood. The grill came up to temp. on the patio, then I moved it inside and began to cook the steak. Within two minutes the carbon monoxide detector went off, and I opened every window and door, and continued at sub zero temp. on the patio!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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.

Well, actually they DO offer dipping sauces @ Little Lamb, at least 4 of them. 

Little Lamb is "Mongolian Hot Pot" (although there's a lot more restaurants in Shanghai) :shock:  It's just diffrenet from Ta Pian Lu. 

The dipping sauces they have is very Northen--fermented bean curd, chives, sesame paste, satay sauce (the last one is not northern though)

I grew up with the regular hot pot.  I like putting an egg in my dipping sauce too.

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