My Favorite Food: Hot Pot 火锅

Hey everyone..In my last blog I said that I had just come back from Sanya, a small island off the southeastern coast of China. And while I had a great time (sunshine, beach, and relaxing), one thing was missing..and that was my favorite Chinese food: Hot Pot 火锅 (Huo Guo).

Hot Pot is probably the most well known food in the southwestern part of China..this includes the provinces of Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, and maybe Yunnan (not sure about this one-never been). Hot Pot originated and is mostly associated with Chongqing, but Sichuan and Guizhou also have many different types of hot pots. Hot pot consists of a large pot that is put over a flame in the middle of the table and is filled with a specific kind of food (and most of the time a soup) and after the food/soup inside come to a boil, then you add a bunch of vegetables and meats and wait for it all to cook..and then enjoy!

There are two main reasons why I love this food. Number one: There is a wide variety of different types of hot pots. To name a few: beef, chicken, mushroom, bean, ice cream (no joke), spicy, pig's foot (again no joke-it's good too), and also the most famous one: Chongqing Hot Pot, which is the spiciest of all the hot pots. You could pretty much take one type of meat or veggie and that be the main ingredient of your hot pot. I have tried a lot, definitely not all, and my favorite is easily Bean Hot Pot. This type of hot pot is the specialty in Guiyang, so people from other provinces don't know about it. I actually had it last night and it had been a while since I'd eaten it (2 weeks!) and it was amazing.

The other reason I love it is the social aspect involved. Everyone has their own personal small bowl filled with rice, but everybody eats out of the same large pot that is in the middle of the table. So you take your chopsticks, and whenever you fill like it you grab a veggie or piece of meat and enjoy. This style of eating is very common here: everyone has their own personal bowl of rice, but you share the other dishes that are in the middle of the table. And from someone that came from the background of eating in front of the tv, this was pretty strange at first. But now it feels natural and you can get a better understanding of the culture, because Chinese people like to do business and get to know new people over a socialable dinner..so this style of eating is very important and a big part of who Chinese people are.

And two extra bonuses of Hot Pot. One: It is cheap! Eating here is really cheap and it is no exception with hot pot. You could potentially spend a lot of money if you bought a lot of meat, but last night 3 of us ate a big hot pot dinner for 55 yuan (total)..which comes out to less than 8 dollars. And also: Hot pot is almost always spicy. Guizhou (Guiyang at least) people have a saying: 我们怕不辣 (Wo men pa bu la)...which literally means "We are afraid of not spicy." So if the hot pot is not spicy, then it is not worth eating. At first I sucked at eating spicy food and usually ended up blowing my nose throughout the entire meal and not enjoying any of it, but now if the food is not spicy, it is difficult to eat. So now I am definitely 怕不辣.