20 hours Ago By HuffPost Life
If you haven’t yet shared the joys of a convivial hot pot meal, then you’ve got something to look forward to — unless you have no idea what you’re doing. But we’re here to fix that. It’s always more fun to share this food with a crowd, so gather a bunch of friends and experience the laughs, fun and delicious surprises that can happen around that steaming pot of broth.
The process might seem intimidating to the uninitiated, but your waitstaff will be used to guiding first-timers. If you’d like to brush up on process and etiquette before your meal, we talked to hot pot aficionados nationwide for a Hot Pot 101 crash course. What is hot pot, anyway? The answer to the question is pretty simple since it’s right there in the name.
You’re given a pot of steaming liquid, and you can cook your food directly in the pot, right there at the table. Chef Kenneth Wan owns Denver’s MAKfam restaurant, which was recently included in the Michelin Guide for Bib Gourmand. He described it this way: “I like to think of hot pot as a Chinese version of fondue.
It’s a popular dining experience across many Asian countries, from Japanese shabu-shabu to Korean and Vietnamese hot pot that all have their own regional flavors and styles.” Chef Justin Lee of New Jersey’s Fat Choy restaurant agreed with Wan’s fondue comparison, but added, “It has a lot more action and is more raucous than any fondue I’ve had, though. It’s a party in a pot.
” “Party” is a key word for this type of dining, Wan said. “Honestly, I’ve never met anyone who didn’t love hot pot. It’s social, interactive and delicious, which is a perfect recipe for fun.
” When and where did the hot pot start? Hot pot is a form of dining that’s been more than 2,000 years in the making, according to Tony Kwan , a food columnist for the Richmond News . “The first forms of hot pot dining appeared in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, approximately 1600 to 256 B.C.
,” he said. “Using copper pots for hot pot started during the Three Kingdoms period, 220 to 280 A.D.
” Jay Li , executive vice president of KPOT Korean Barbeque and Hot Pot , also noted that hot pot as an experience is deeply rooted in Asian culinary traditions. Like Kwan, he pointed to a Chinese dynastic origin. “There are even some stories of Mongolian soldiers using their bronze helmets as the first-ever hot pots,” he said.
Li has his own theories about why this way of eating has endured: “It’s a beloved tradition due to the communal dining experience where friends and family gather around a simmering pot of broth, cooking and sharing a variety of meats, seafood, vegetables and noodles.” How does it work? Wan explained the basics: “Depending on the restaurant, you’ll either have an individual induction burner and pot of broth in front of you, or you’ll share one or two induction burners with a pot divided into sections. “The next step is choosing your broth base.
Many hot pot restaurants are all-you-can-eat, where you order meat and premium seafood from your server, while a buffet of raw vegetables, noodles, tofu, fish balls and other ingredients is available for you to grab and cook at your table.” Personalization, variety and togetherness are some of the reasons that people love to eat like this. Joanne Liu is the founder of Denver’s Mile High Asian Food Week .
“What I love most about hot pot are the variety of delicious ingredients and the social aspect of the experience,” Liu said. “First, there are so many ingredients to choose from — thinly sliced meats, seafood, vegetables, noodles, dumplings and more. Everyone gets to mix their own dipping sauces, so it’s fun to know what unique flavor combinations people create.
It’s an interactive experience where you get to cook your own food right at the table. Finally, it’s a meal that brings people together.” The flavor of your meal can be perfectly suited to your own spice preference.
“I think a common misconception is that because ingredients are boiled, the food is bland,” Kwan said. “In fact, the food is very flavorful, as you can select from a wide variety of different broth bases, from very light to very spicy. The final broth that you can enjoy, after cooking all the ingredients in it, can also be a rich and complex blend of the various ingredients you’ve cooked in the broth.
In addition, the mixture of ingredients and the multitude of sauces gives you much more variety than a traditional dining experience.” Hot pot can be the ultimate romantic meal. All that togetherness makes hot pot the ultimate romantic meal, some say.
Wan has his own real-life hot pot romance story: “I won my wife’s heart with some steaming hot pot magic,” he said. “We first crossed paths during happy hour, and I was immediately smitten. In our brief chat, I discovered a crucial detail: She was obsessed with hot pot.
A few weeks later, my birthday rolled around, and I hatched a plan to have a friend invite her to my hot pot birthday party, and I crossed my fingers that she’d show up. She did, and sparks flew — or maybe it was just the bubbling broth — but we clicked instantly.” “Turns out, she wasn’t thinking much about me at the time — she was just psyched to eat hot pot.
But hey, hot pot did its magic, and now it’s a staple of our life together. To this day, we love recreating those cozy, flavor-packed dinners at home.” Some Guidelines And Pro Tips Everyone has an opinion about how to do hot pot, so of course these experts had good advice to make your experience even more delicious.
“As long as you mind your manners, there’s really no wrong way to enjoy it,” Kwan said. “Just put the food in, take it out when it’s cooked to your taste, and enjoy.” Order enough, not too much: “Don’t order more than you can eat,” Wan said.
“Hot pot is usually all-you-can-eat, but it’s not a free-for-all, so only take what you can finish. Most places will charge you for uneaten items, and nobody wants to be that person.” Keep sauces tidy: “Try not to create a mess at the sauce bar, and don’t spill any sauce onto other sauces,” suggested Luti Salem , co-owner at Arlington, Virginia’s Mala Tang restaurant.
Watch those chopsticks: “If you’re sharing a pot, don’t dip your chopsticks in the broth,” Wan said. “It’s not just a hygiene thing, it’s also about being considerate. Use the communal tongs and scoops provided to grab your food from the pot.
It keeps the experience clean and enjoyable for everyone.” Patience, please: “If a pot is already filled to the brim with ingredients, it’s best to avoid adding anything else for a few minutes,” Li said. “And it’s important to wait until the broth is heated to the correct temperature before adding your ingredients to cook.
” Safety first: “Be careful how you place hot pot items into the boiling water,” Liu said. “There have been times when my kids just dropped in fish or beef balls, and it splattered everywhere. Use hot pot utensils to gently place them in the broth.
” Pot hoggers beware: “Make sure to retrieve all of your ingredients from the pot,” Li said. “If you put a dumpling in to cook for a few minutes, make sure you go back for it when it’s ready and don’t leave it floating around the pot.” Noodles last: “I do have a particular order of what I eat while doing hot pot,” Liu said.
“I will eat veggies, seafood and meats first, and leave any noodles at the end of my meal. I do this for two reasons: the noodles will soak up all the broth at the end of the meal, and I can fill up on all the other delicious foods without getting full from the noodles.” Another reason for this “noodles last” approach comes from Salem, who said, “Make sure to eat everything else before you start cooking your noodles to make sure they won’t get stuck on the bottom and burn the pot.
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