Chinese language
Talks on Chinese Hot-pot
Here is an essay written in Chinese by a Korean friend called Cui Zhenmei, which narrates her wonderful experience of eating hot-pot in China:
As described in the article, there is always a pot usually made of charcoal stove with a central chimney and an outer ring filled with hot broth in the restaurants (Now an ordinary pot and an electric stove will also do.). And this is just the cooking tool for boiling the food during your dinner.
To eat hot-pot, you may first choose a particular type of broth to your taste – what is flavored with mushrooms and dried shrimps, what is flavored with chili peppers, what is flavored with , seafood, etc. – and order different kinds of raw foods – such as mutton slices, chicken breast, beef trip, crab meat, squid, Chinese parsley, cabbage, bean curd, vermicelli, cucumber, mushroom, etc.. Then, you may dip the raw foods into the bubbling broth. And finally, don't hesitate to enjoy you boiled foods, together with sweetish sauces- such as vinegar, chili sauce, sesame sauce and whatever you like.
Besides, eating hot-pot nowadays has become more than a mere culinary experience; it has become a way of life. Nothing can be more desirable and pleasant than sitting down with family and friends to a hot-pot on a cold winter day or in an air-conditioned room on a hot summer day.
Believe me, my dear absent friends, it always deserves your coming from afar to satisfy the taste buds and the stomachs.