Hot Pot in Mianyang (Sichuan Provence, China)
One of the most famous Sichuan foods is the Hot Pot. In general Europeans should be warned that at times Sichuan foods are so hot (spicy) that they can make you cry.
The hotpot is not unlike the European fondue. Since little children and people with stomach trouble (and some tourists like me) can’t eat so hot the Hot Pot has two seconds. In one there is a red broth witch is unbelievable hot, in the other there is non-spiced broth. I usually stick with the baby-version of the hot-pot ;-).
Then the food comes in, in our case we decided for a meat hot pot as I don’t like fish so much. So they brought different types of meat: Beef, Pork, Whatever, Beef stomach, some intestines of a small animal, some filled noodles and Chinese meatballs. All are thrown by the Chinese Service women into the Hot Pot. Only exception are the small animal intestines witch should not be cooked long. The intestines are served on a plate and you grab them with your chopsticks and hold them in the hot pot for like 30 seconds. Luckily I got away with saying: “These have never been my favourite food and the meatballs are so good…”
They also served pumpkin cakes that were very good. The good thing about cakes and sweets in China is, that sweets in China are not too sweet, they are even less sweetened that German sweets.
When the meat was done we started eating by fishing meat and noodles by chopsticks or a little net from the Hot Pot. You have to be lucky to catch something that is done and that you like. If you catch something you don’t like or just spices you drop it.
The meet is then dunked in a mixture of sesame oil, balsamic (or similar) vinegar, herbs and garlic.
When you believe you can eat no more the vegetables come. Now you can fish for mushrooms, Chinese cabbage and others. So vegetarians have to be patient and whoever intends to eat some veggies in the Sichuan Hot Pot should leave some space for them in the stomach.
Tags: chinese fondue, chinese hot pot, hot pot sichuan, sichuan food, spicy food china, spicy sichuan food