The power’s out in the teacher’s flat today, and since there’s no meals provided for us, we decided to go into town to have Hot Pot. It’s winter, after all, and there’s no better time to have Hot Pot than a cold winter day.

“What is Hot Pot?” you’re asking. Let me enlighten you.

It’s a pot, sometimes divided into two compartments – one spicy, one regular, filled with broth. And in that broth, while sitting at the table, everyone is cooking their dishes, as the pot sits on a stove and the broth inside is boiling.

There are tons of different kinds of Hot Pot (some fancy restaurants even offer small pots for every individual), and some places fry fish or chicken in the pot before the soup gets added; others pay more attention to the broth that can be enjoyed before the dishes get added to the pot.

Hot Pot is a very traditional meal around here, (and definitely a winter favorite among most Chinese I know), and there are tons of ingredients that can be added to the broth and enjoyed later, once they’re cooked. Typical ingredients for a Hot Pot are:

• beef, mutton (thinly sliced)
• sweet and regular potatoes,
• lettuce & other green vegetables,
• carrots, lotus,
• tofu (in various forms),
• mushrooms,
• meat balls,
• noodles,
• and whatever else you could think of.

As the summers here can get really hot, Hot Pot typically is enjoyed in the winter, when homes are cold and the boiling soup doesn’t only warm up the insides of everyone enjoying the meal,  but also gets the room warm a little. I can’t imagine a winter without the Hot Pot anymore!