Happy autumn!
In my neck of the woods, autumn brings beautiful fall colors
of the changing leaves, an abundance of delicous harvest vegetables and goodies
and cooler crisp weather. As the weather
cools, I like to warm up by enjoying one if my favorite Chinese meals; 火鍋 (foh wo; literally meaning fire pot) also known as hot
pot, dah bin low, Chinese fondue, or steamboat.
Hot Pot is very popular
in China, HK and other places where there are Asian people. In bigger cities in Canada, like Toronto or
Vancouver, there are many hot pot restaurants with burners built into the
dinner tables. Customers pick the
ingredients they want and the waiters bring them the ingredients, the pot with
broth and hot water to top up the pots.
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| A hot pot meal prepared by my godmother photo credit: Leo and Mel |
This type of Chinese
meal has been around for over a thousand years.
My father once told me that hot pot came from an ancient village in
Northern China where the peasants were very poor and had little food, but
wanted to have a gathering. The
villagers brought what little they had.
Somebody brought a pot, another brought a fish they had caught, cut up
to share, another brought a few vegetables from their meager garden, and so
on. When combined, the villagers had
plenty of food and from then on hot pot became popular.
There are different
stories about the origin of hot pot and there are many different combinations
of ingredients that can go into hot pot.
You could even add your own twist on it.
My wife adds tortellini to her hot pot and while it's not traditionally
Chinese, it actually tastes pretty good in it.
Here are some common
ingredients for hot pot:
shrimp thinly
sliced beef udon noodles wonton noodles
crab thinly
sliced lamb nappa dumplings
fish balls cubed
tofu bok choy beef balls
Tip:
If you are using a gas or coal fired stove, make sure to
have adequate ventilation, including opening the window as the stove will eat
up oxygen.
If you are using ground beef, or thick raw meat
ingredients like dumplings, it is best to boil the meatballs/dumplings
beforehand to ensure they are properly cooked, and to also reduce cooking time
while in the hot pot. Thinly sliced
meats such as beef or lamb are okay to put into the pot raw, as they will cook
rapidly.
Enjoy!
