Hot Pot to the Rescue!

The temperature is freezing and the wind is howling.  The wind chill factor was so high that I literally felt my fingers frozen today as I wheeled the shopping cart to my car.  After I got into the car, for a brief moment, memory from childhood flashed back.  I did not grow up in a place where there was something called heat.  

Hone Kong is a sub tropical city and the temperature rarely goes below 60 degree F. even in winter.  However, there is still some chance that when a cold front hits, the temperature can go below 50 F and even below 40 F.  

On many of those evenings, my mom would gather us around the kitchen stove and we would eat hot pots.  As we got older, things got more sophisticated and my dad would bring in some sort of gas stove, we would gather around the dining table, with the hot pot in the center, and the whole family will enjoy the warmth as well as the yummy food.  Nowadays, the most popular style of hot pot is probably the electric kind as it is the safest.  There is also no need to worry about the gas running low.

Depending on what region you come from, the kind of food, the soup base and the sauces used for hot pot can vary a lot.  

I am Cantonese from Hong Kong and we tend to prepare our soup base with fresh produce and almost no spices.  People from the northern region of China, or even people from Taiwan tend to put a lot of condiments and spices in their soup.  I always start my hot pot with some chicken bouillon in water, and then I would cut up some pieces of daikon, carrots, or even pumpkin (I eat these too once they are cooked).  This will make the soup base very “sweet”.  Bottom line is, there is no strict rule for soup base, even a pot of hot water will do.  

Let’s rewind now and talk about what to buy for the hot pot.  Again, there are a lot of choices.  For meat lovers, you will find in either the Chinese or Korean grocery stores; there are a lot of pre-packaged, very thin sliced meats: beef, chicken, pork, etc.  They are not marinated.  The reason for the thin slicing is that it will be cooked almost instantly once it is immersed in the hot pot.  For seafood lovers, some people would prepare shelled shrimps, oysters, squids etc.  These require more cleaning and slicing and since we are not big seafood fans, we usually would go for fish balls, tofu-fish balls, beef balls, or any kind of frozen whatever balls, ready to be cooked.  H-Mart in Edison, NJ has a big selection of prepared “balls” or fish products especially for hot pot.

Our family loves lots of vegetables for our hot pot.  Different kinds of mushrooms and fresh vegetables like watercress, yu-choy, bok-choy, etc. are used.  Tofu or bean curd products are also very popular.  I guess you can be as creative as you want and try to incorporate food that you like to be cooked.

The final main thing that we need to address is a must – the sauces!  When we do hot pot, what everyone needs are two bowls.  One is for mixing the sauce, and one is for holding the food you ladle out from the hot pot.  You see, when you get freshly cooked food from the hot pot, it carries quite a bit of water, you do not want to put the food directly to your sauce bowl lest the sauce will be diluted very fast.  Instead you want to bring the sauce to your food bowl.

So how are we going to prepare the sauce?  Again, it runs the whole gamut – to name a few – soya sauce, sa cha sauce, vinegar, hoi sin sauce, miso, sesame oil, oyster sauce, chili sauce, etc., you can experiment and be as playful as you want.  What I like to do is I always cut up finely some garlic, scallion, ginger and cilantro for people to put liberally on their individual sauce.  Try to experiment with different combinations and come up with your favorite individualized sauce.

So let’s recap, first you go to the grocery store and get all the ingredients that you like to use, make sure you have all the sauces too.  When you get home, whilst the hot water and soup base is being prepared on the table, wash all the vegetables, chop up the garlic, etc. and put out the sauces for every one to choose.  After everyone get their sauces, the soup base should be ready.  Let’s get around the table and start putting the food in.  Pay attention some food cooks faster than others, and always watch that when raw meat is added, wait until the meat turns color and the water boils again before you consume the other food that is in the hot pot at the same time.  Don’t try to put too much food in all at once, it is always more enjoyable to cook some and eat some.  Of course to aid getting out the food, a ladle and a pair of common chopsticks would help.  There are also specially designed wired ladles for hot pots.  I am sure you can  find them in Asian grocery stores.

Definitely hot pot is not something you should eat in a hurry, it is something for everyone to be involved and enjoy.  After all, what better way to spend a cold winter evening by gathering around a hot pot, enjoy freshly cooked food and warm lasting conversations.
It will certainly drive away any winter blues but bring in toasty warm feet.