Experiencing Hot Pot

Have you ever experienced a hot pot meal with a few close friends? We recently were invited to share hot pot with Mark’s niece Jesseca and her fiancée Andy, while visiting in Ohio. Andy is from China and has fond memories of this traditional Chinese communal meal. It was an honor and blessing to participate in the event.

Entering Adele’s kitchen, where Jesseca and Andy were preparing the vegetables for the meal, I anticipated jumping in to assist. To my delight, Andy welcomed my help. While he chopped and diced, he explained that enjoying hot pot was primarily an experience mutually shared, as it was both prepared together and eaten together while both food and fellowship were enjoyed. While we worked, Andy related his memories of family hot pot and the history behind the practice. Its Chinese name literally translates into “Firepot.”

We cleaned rice by washing and repeating until the water ran clear. I had never washed rice so extensively but enjoyed the sensation of the grains passing over my hands time and again. Andy said that washing the rice was often his job when he was a boy. It was an important task, as properly cleaned rice was a necessity in Chinese custom. Washing the rice removed excess starch, as well as any dirt or impurities. It was essential in allowing the rice to be fluffier when cooked, rather than gummy, and gave it a shinier appearance.

I was enamored by the colors, textures, and pleasant varieties of fresh vegetables. I even learned how to properly cut bamboo shoots. I giggled at the beautiful enoki mushrooms as we pulled them apart into small bundles. Their small, shiny, white caps on lengthy threadlike stems were a new delicacy for me. Everyone worked in unison to assemble the meal ingredients, including shitake mushrooms, mustard greens, and bok choy. Protein ingredients included thinly sliced brisket, sliced beef tongue, and cubed tofu. Tomato based broth, spicy Sichuan broth, traditional herbal broth, and Andy’s special broth bubbled and simmered on the tables while the vegetables were being prepared.

In a hot pot meal, a large pot of broth is shared at the center of the table to cook the bite sized pieces of meat and vegetables. Each participant uses their own chopsticks to deposit whatever is available to their liking into the pot to cook. It is a versatile, satisfying way to please several people, as there can be something for everyone in a hot pot meal. When it is finished cooking, the food is removed with chopsticks and deposited into your bowl to eat. Individual dipping sauce bowls are close by for personal use. The idea was to dunk the newly cooked hot pot ingredients into the sauce before eating them.

Directly, our fresh meal ingredients were positioned ornately on the tables, filling the area and making for a bountiful looking feast. The pots were bubbling, the places set, and we were ready with our bowls laden with beautiful, shiny, rice. We were set to experience the meal portion of hotpot. Using our chopsticks, we placed items into the broth to cook. It was easy to lose what we had put in, but Andy said that it didn’t matter what we ended up taking out, even though we tried to diligently watch what was “ours.” It wasn’t as easy to withdraw the ingredients with chopsticks as it was to place them in! There were tongs available to fish items out, but we all wanted to realize the full Chinese experience and remained with our wooden utensils! Surprisingly, it didn’t take but a minute or two for the ingredients to cook. As the meat required less time than the vegetables, we put it in right before the vegetables were finished. As per traditional Chinese cuisine, we enjoyed dumplings with our hotpot.

Camaraderie was woven into our hotpot meal. The cooking experience was practically effortless, and we repeated the process several times throughout the course of the meal. While we leisurely discussed the history and technique of the meal, the broth became richer and more flavorful. You could watch it change as we exchanged family stories and added and extracted more items to and from the pots. The end of the traditional meal finished with drinking the full-bodied savory broth.

We are thankful for the experience of sharing this special intimate meal with Jesseca and Andy. Our hot pot was more than a meal. It was a participation in something bigger than ourselves. It was a look into a different culture. It was a moment in history where we shared in others’ stories. Our lives intersected and like the broth, we are all the richer for it.

- Rhonda