Chinese Hotpot: More Than Just Food

One hotpot a day keeps troubles away. If not, then two. In China, Hotpot is more than just food, but a lifestyle. The flavors of the soup differentiate from various regions. 

Traditional Chinese Hotpot

What is Chinese Hotpot?

The hotpot is usually a pot with soup flavors, putting the ingredients into the pot. You can prepare and eat hot pot at home or in a restaurant. Cooked food is usually eaten with dipping sauce to add flavor.

Traditional hot pot ingredients include sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, sliced potatoes, bean products, tofu, and seafood. The raw materials are cut into thin slices beforehand, and they will be cooked quickly and stably in the boiling soup and kept at a gentle boiling temperature. Most raw foods can be cooked in hotpot, although their cooking time may be different, they must be immersed in the soup and then taken out accordingly.

Types of Chinese Hotpot

The widely known one is Sichuan Hotpot, which is usually spicy and oily. It mainly consists of two types: Jiugongge and Yuanyangguo.

Jiugongge, trellis hotpot

Jiugongge is a fully-spicy hotpot, the pot is divided into nine trellises. The spicy soup base comes from plenty of Sichuan peppers and red chili. You could choose different spicy levels: minimal spicy, medium spicy, and super spicy. Different ingredients will be immersed in different trellis.

                                                    

Yuanyangguo, half spicy and half clear broth                                                        

Yuanyangguo is a double-flavor hotpot, usually contains half spicy and half clear soup pot. If you can't bear too much spicy, you could choose clear soup broth. The non-spicy soup made from mushrooms or tomatoes. 

Instant-boiled mutton

Instant-boiled mutton is another traditional hotpot for people who live in the north of China. A hot-pot of boiling water is placed in the middle of the table. Tofu, vegetables, and bean products are already boiled in the pot. You could dip the sliced mutton into the hotpot and take it out as soon as the mutton rolls change color. 

Cantonese Hotpot

Cantonese hotpot is famous for the bone broth. Cantonese people boil animal bones or meat, seafood, or vegetables in water but also with some tonics such as cordyceps and mushrooms, usually need to be boiled more than two hours.

Which one is your favorite? If you like our blog, please give us a 👍🏻 and comment down below!!!:)

Written by Sistercuisine