Today, we are going back to Asia where in cold months like these, people eat hot pot.

While a hot pot full of flavored broth is kept simmering, raw ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked in a manner similar to fondue (hot pots usually use a water-based soup, while fondues use cooking oil). Hot pots may be prepared and eaten either at home or in a restaurant. Since it is considered as a main dish, it can be enjoyed without other separate courses like rice or noodles. The cooked food is often eaten with a dipping sauce for additional flavoring.

***Be sure to watch the special ending, you won’t stop laughing!***

Typical hot pot ingredients include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, vermicelli, sliced potatoes, bean products, egg dumplings, tofu, and seafood. Raw ingredients are pre-sliced into thin sections that will cook quickly and consistently in the simmering broth, which is maintained at a gentle boiling temperature. Most raw foods can be cooked in a hot pot, although they may have different cooking times, and must be immersed in the soup and then removed accordingly.

Hot Pot with two flavors.
At the conclusion of the meal, the broth has acquired many flavors from the added ingredients, and may be served to the diners after turning off the cooking heat source.

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Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest hot pots appeared around the Zhou dynasty. The tripods of Zhou dynasty may be the earliest prototypes of the hot pot. Diners among the nobility each had a personal pot made of bronze, and called ran lu (燃炉). The main part of ran lu was a small stove with a small pot above burning charcoal. Later, during the Qing dynasty, hot pot became popular among the emperors. In particular, the Qianlong Emperor was very fond of hot pot, and would eat it for almost every meal. Later, the Jiaqing Emperor also had a banquet with 1,550 hot pots at his coronation. Empress Dowager Cixi was also known to have enjoyed hot pot, especially in the winter months.

No matter what hot pot you are enjoying, almost all of them come with a dipping sauce which you can put together yourself from a variety of different ingredients. This recipe, I consider to be The Best Hot Pot Dipping Sauce Recipe 自製火鍋醬.

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