Chinese Hot Pot

In last week's post (Click here to read!), I talked about fondue with cheese, bourguignonne, and chocolate. However, that's not the only type of fondue that exists in this world. As I mentioned before, the word "fondue" is now used with anything that is associated with dipping food into a hot pot of liquid. Well, in the Chinese culture, we have something called "hot pot."

Hot pot? What in the world is that, and how is it similar to fondue?
Hot pot is also known as Chinese fondue, and it refers to the method of cooking the food. It consist of a open pot with a soup base that's placed in the middle of the table on a portable stove. The food that would be placed in it to cook would be placed around the pot. Similar to fondue, hot pot is meant to be eaten together and everyone shares the communal pot to cook their food. However, instead of using long stemmed forks, we use chopsticks and wire skimmer to cook and take the food out of the pot.

Okay--hot pot and fondue aren't too different! It's just hot pot is the entree version of fondue. But, what types of food do you put into the pot?
Since hot pot comes from the Chinese, the types of food that's cooked are usually Chinese food. The following are a sample of the food that could be found at a Chinese hot pot:

• Thin Slices of beef, pork, chicken
• Fish Balls
• Beef Balls
• Fish Tofu
• Leafy vegetables/Choi (such as Bok Choy)
• Fried Tofu Puffs
• Seafood (such as squid, crab sticks)

The basic soup base is made with water, salt and soup base such as using the Knorr Bouillon Chicken cubes. The dipping sauce used is typically soy sauce or hot soy sauce with chopped scallions (also known as green onions). But you can use hoisin sauce, sesame oil or any other sauce you like to eat with Chinese food.

If you don't want to make hot pot at home, you can always go to a restaurant. One restaurant in Chinatown that I recommend for hot pot is Pho Xe Lua Vietamese & Thai Restaurant, which is known as "Choo Choo" among the Chinese. The hot pot deal they have here is for two people, but when I ordered it with my three friends, it was more than enough food for us. We even had some leftovers! Also, if you do plan to go to this restaurant to try hot pot, remember to bring cash because majority of the stores in Chinatown only accept cash.

Pho Xe Lua Vietnamese & Thai Restaurant

907 Race Street

Philadelphia, PA 19107

(215) 627-8883

Special Thanks to Regina from 903cafe for the photo!