One of my favorite food items to have in China – hotpot. It’s a complete DIY experience, which makes cooking fun. The hot pot is at the center of the table, a boiling cauldron of water and chilli oil/many times meat broth in to which goes meat and vegetables. The heat can be regulated with the little regulator next to it. Once they are cooked the ingredients are ladled out into a small bowl of sauces, which you can mix yourself. I mixed mashed garlic, soy sauce, diced chillies and some of my favorite Chinese peppercorns. Next to my bowl of sauces you can see a plate of cut cauliflower. Such platefuls of vegetables or meat can be added till you feel you cannot eat any more. You are charged per plate. Now, if only India had this…
Looks mouth-wateringly delicious! The table, the hotpot, the plates looks quite sophisticated! The hotpot restaurant you went to, seems to be quite sophisticated! Yes, I wish they had this in India too. When I checkout Chinese restaurants here and they serve ‘Indian-Chinese’ I laugh at them now and say that this is not Chinese food 🙂 I also ask them ‘Where is the mapo dofu? Where is the Chinese tea? Where is the hot pot? Where is the dou jian?’ 🙂