火锅 Hot pots:
- hot pots are crazily popular in winters - long long waiting queues but literally they are served all year round everywhere in Greater China!
3 kinds of soup bases: Dark red - super hot and spicy, Red - moderate hot and spicy and plain meat/fish stock
This kind of hot pots are usually served in Sichuan restaurants / street food stalls
The Sichuan chili soup base has a biting and numbing hotness that could be unbearable for first timers. I cant get used to the hotness but most of my friends are addicted to it and their "tolerance" escalates over time!
another forms of hot pot with 4 or 9 compartments - each compartment for boiling different foods - beef, fish/meat balls, mutton, lots of vegetables, turnips, carrots, peppers, lianou （lotus stems）mushrooms, sausages, doufu, luncheon meat, ham, oysters, shrimps, crabs, clams, other shellfishes, cuttlefishes, squids, octopus, fish meat slices, jiaozi, huentun, noodles (wheat flour, japanese wudong, bean flour, vermicelli ..
This is the look of a traditional hot pot which is a metal pot with a hollow "chimney" in the middle for ventilation. Also in display are some the most popular raw foods that are being boiled in the hot soup bubbling in the pot
Another important ingredient which complement a perfect hot pot meal is the dipping sauces which help to dictate the taste of the food alongside the soup bases:
fresh and raw assortment of food on offer to what looks like a hot pot buffet
a wide array of dipping sauce serving in a more sophisticated hot pot restaurant
Hot pot meals are great socializing events held especially in the dry winters frigid temperaure when friends and family get together in round tables getting warmed up and moisturised by the warm air, great food and friendly atmosphere and intaking extra calories for fighting against the biting chills
