Plastic can melt at high temperatures, and metal conducts heat. Plastic and metal chopsticks aren’t ideal. Hot Pot is best eaten with bamboo chopsticks or wooden chopsticks, which are heat resistant and cool off quickly.

Chopsticks: Chopsticks offer superior dexterity when it comes to retrieving food items.

However, any wide, relatively shallow pot will work. Some designs even have a “yin-yang” feature, where you can have two soup flavors simmering at the same time. The metal is rather thin, which allows the simmering soup to heat up quickly as additional ingredients are added.

Pot: Chinese stainless steel hot pots are ideal because of their round shape and depth-wide and deep enough to hold a good amount of food, while not being so deep that the food gets lost at the bottom.

If you plan on making hot pot a regular event, we do recommend getting a hot pot set with a built-in electrical heating element-the pot is removable for easy cleaning. You could use an electric burner (coil or induction) or a tabletop gas burner. However, any portable heat source will work.

Heat Source: We have a specialized electric hot pot burner that comes with a pot.

You do need some special equipment to have a hot pot meal at home. That’s why we prefer to make our hot pot at home. as well, but we find them to be relatively pricey, and the quality varies widely. We have hot pot restaurants here in the U.S. Haidilao roughly translates to “scooping the bottom of the ocean,” which is a pretty good metaphor for scooping your ladle through the pot for a fish ball or tofu puff! One of our favorite hot pot chains in China is called Haidilao Hot Pot Restaurant (海底捞火锅), known for their superior service and dancing noodle pullers. Some have special pre-mixed dipping sauces you can order off the menu, while others offer a buffet-style sauce bar. There are restaurants specializing in Yunnan hot pot, Sichuan hot pot, Mongolian lamb hot pot, and even Japanese shabu-shabu. Many offer specialized regional hot pot experiences. Others focus on the more traditional communal dining experience. Some offer individual small pots with rotating conveyor belts of ingredients, similar to conveyor belt sushi restaurants.

Hot pot restaurants range from casual to upscale. In China, hot pot is a cold weather staple. If that sounds right up your alley (how could it not be?!), keep reading! How They Do Hot Pot In China Hot pot can be a deeply personalized meal! Each individual can mix their own dipping sauce, and choose exactly what they want to eat. They can then retrieve cooked food items from the pot with wire ladles, and flavor them with individual dipping sauces. There are many types of hot pot across China, but at its most basic, Chinese Hot Pot is an interactive meal in which diners sit around a simmering pot of soup at the center of the table with various raw ingredients-meat, seafood, vegetables, tofu, and starches-in thin slices or small pieces for quick cooking.ĭiners can add whatever they like to the boiling liquid. With all of us staying indoors and sharing each meal with those in our own households, it’s also a great at-home dining “event.” It’s a welcome break from routine, and a delicious one! In this post, we’ll talk about how to make hot pot at home. Plus, because all the food gets cooked at the table, it’s an easy meal to boot. It’s a warm, comforting, and social meal to have with a close-knit group of family or friends. When fall and winter roll around, one big treat tends to pop into our minds-Chinese hot pot. We worked with Lee Kum Kee to develop this Hot Pot at Home post.

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