Where is the best hotpot in China?

Among the many delicacies in our country, there is one kind of food that is unanimously praised by people from both the north and the south, and that is hot pot. Today, let’s talk about hot pot.

01

Old Beijing Lamb Hotpot

When talking about hotpot, Beijing is definitely one of the top cities that we can mention.

In Beijing, it is usually called shabu-shabu or shabu-shabu.

Because lamb is the absolute protagonist of Beijing hotpot, the later "beef hotpot" did not appear until the 1990s.

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When Beijingers eat shabu-shabu, they pay attention to mutton being mutton, and they cannot put mutton and beef in the same pot. It is said that beef and mutton have different smells, and if they are mixed together, the smells will mix.

Hot pot soup is mostly made of clear water, with some green onions, ginger, shiitake mushrooms and black mushrooms added to it, which allows you to enjoy the original flavor of lamb.

You can also add some dried shrimps or small crabs to make it taste a bit like seafood.

In the old days, some diners who knew how to eat would first order a plate of braised chicken jelly, which had more jelly than meat. After drinking, the diners would put the remaining jelly into the pot and then cook the meat.

There is also a saying about the mutton used in shabu-shabu. In Tang Lusun's Talks on Food, it is said: "The mutton slices in the restaurant are all from big, fat sheep outside Zhangjiakou.

It is said that big-tailed sheep are driven to Ci'er Mountain outside the city to escape the heat during the dog days of summer.

The mountains are covered with lush pine and grass, and the rapids are noisy. After a summer, the sheep are well-fed and plump, and then they are driven from Kouwai to Beiping. On the way, they pass several curved silver ponds, all of which are fed by tributaries of Yuquan Mountain. The sheep drink these clear springs along the way, and the fishy smell is naturally gone.

Beijingers eat shabu-shabu, which is a bit like Chaoshan people eat beef hotpot. There are more than a dozen different names for different parts of mutton.

For example, the ribs are called "cucumber strips", the upper abdominal meat is called "upper brain", the lower abdominal meat is called "lower brain", and the hind leg meat is called "grinding crotch". In addition, there are also "three forks", "belly strips", "soft tenderloin" and so on.

After the meat is hot pot, people usually add some cabbage, tofu, and vermicelli, and finally cook a pot of mixed noodles and have two sesame cakes to make the meal complete.

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There is a legend about who invented the old Beijing shabu-shabu mutton:

When Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, was at war, the enemy attacked while he was cooking mutton. The cook had an idea and cut the mutton into thin slices, so it cooked quickly.

After eating the mutton, Yuan Taizu led his troops to win the battle. Later, when he entertained civil and military officials in the palace, he asked the chef to cook mutton in this way. All the officials found it delicious, and this method was passed down.

However, the three volumes of "Yinshi Zhengyao" written by Hu Sihui in the Yuan Dynasty provide very detailed descriptions of the main diets of the time.

For example, among the mutton dishes, there is no cooking method of "slicing the mutton and cooking it in a pot".

On the contrary, in the chapter "Boxia Gong" of "Shan Jia Qing Gong" written by Lin Hong during the reign of Emperor Lizong of the Southern Song Dynasty, there is a similar way of eating shabu-shabu:

The author once visited the hermit Master Zhizhi in Wuyi Mountain and accidentally caught a wild rabbit on the way.

There was no chef at that time, and Chef Zhizhi suggested that the rabbit meat could be cut into thin slices, marinated with wine, sauce and pepper, and then boiled in a stove. After the water boiled, the meat could be picked up with chopsticks and put into the pot to be eaten.

In the 1980s, a tomb from the early Liao Dynasty was unearthed in Aohan Banner, Zhaowuda League, Inner Mongolia. The mural depicted three Khitans sitting on the ground around a pot.

One of them was using chopsticks to dip food in the pot. There was a plate that looked like seasoning in front of the pot, and there was also a container for meat on the table, which was very similar to the "basic configuration" of hot pot today.

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It is recorded in "A Hundred Stories of the Old Capital": "Mutton hotpot is the most common delicacy in winter and must be eaten in mutton restaurants.

This way of eating is a special flavor that has evolved from the nomadic tradition of the north. "Maybe some people think that shabu-shabu was created by the Mongolians based on this section?

02

Sichuan and Chongqing Hotpot

In addition to Beijing shabu-shabu, another type of hotpot that is likely to take over the country is probably Sichuan and Chongqing hotpot.

Sichuan and Chongqing people love hotpot without spicy food. There is also a joke: "The greatest indulgence of Sichuan and Chongqing people to their friends from other places is 'Yuanyang is Yuanyang!'"

Indeed, without the red oil and chili base, it seems to have lost its soul. Most Chengdu hotpots use clear oil, that is, rapeseed oil, as the base, and spices such as Sichuan pepper and Sichuan peppercorns to enhance the flavor.

The sesame oil dip is wrapped around the cooked food, and it is so delicious to take a bite.

Although Chongqing hotpot looks very similar to Chengdu hotpot, there are actually quite big differences.

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Chongqing hotpot generally uses beef tallow as the base, and the most distinctive one is the "nine-square grid" pot.

Before I had it, I always thought the nine grids represented nine different flavors. Later I found out that the grids were connected.

Local friends said that this kind of hot pot was prepared for individual customers in the past. Each table could accommodate four guests, and the two grids in front were theirs to prevent others from taking the food away.

If you can accept offal, the must-haves for Chongqing hotpot are tripe and duck intestines. Put them in the pot, toss them up and down, and they crunch in your mouth. It is simply a delicacy.

03

Guangdong Hotpot

Guangdong is also a province with many foodies. When it comes to hotpot in Guangdong, the most recommended one is Chaoshan beef hotpot.

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The soup base of Chaoshan hotpot is usually made from beef bones. When it is served, serve a bowl of it first. The steaming thick soup will immediately whet your appetite.

Before I had Chaoshan hotpot, I thought beef was just "fat beef". Now, there are spoon kernels, spoon handles, hanging dragons, three-flowered toes, five-flowered toes, chest fat, etc., plus two chewy beef balls, it's like a living god. Oh, by the way, Chaoshan beef hotpot dipping sauce must be served with shacha sauce.

Although both are Cantonese hotpot, hotpot has a completely different style.

My first memory of hotpot was in Infernal Affairs 2, where five gangsters gathered around a charcoal clay pot to eat hotpot in a turbulent atmosphere.

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The soup base of hot pot is usually made from pork bones, chicken racks and seafood, with a rich and fresh flavor. The dishes are mainly seafood, such as shrimps, crabs, clams... There is a very interesting hot pot dish called "Crispy Meat Wan", which is made by feeding grass carp with broad beans when it weighs 3 jin. When it grows to 6 to 7 jin, it is caught, cut into fillets, and put into the hot pot. It tastes crispy and is very special.

Shunde sashimi is well-known, and Shunde porridge-based hotpot is equally delicious.

As the name suggests, the porridge base pot is made of fragrant rice. The base of the pot is particularly sticky. When the ingredients are put into the pot, they will be quickly coated with a layer of "rice milk". In this warm coating, the ingredients can maintain their freshness and the meat can be tender.

04

Hainan Coconut Chicken Hotpot

Hainan is located south of Guangdong.

The encounter between coconut and Wenchang chicken created coconut chicken hotpot (although Hainan coconut chicken hotpot was born in Shenzhen).

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Open a fresh coconut and take the fragrant and sweet coconut water to make the soup base. Cut the coconut meat into long strips and put it into the pot with the chopped Wenchang chicken. When the chicken is cooked, serve a bowl of soup first, which has the aroma of chicken and the fragrance of coconut. Then put a piece of chicken in it and dip it in the seasonings of tangerine, soy sauce and chopped sand ginger. The chicken will be fresh and delicious.

05

Guizhou Hotpot

If you go to Guizhou and don’t try the sour soup fish hotpot, it would be a wasted trip.

The taste of sour soup fish hotpot is difficult to describe in one or two words, because it is too complex and you have to experience it yourself.

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This complex and wonderful taste comes from the various ethnic minority seasonings in the sour soup base, such as mao gua, lemongrass, houttuynia cordata, mint, litsea cubeba oil... The freshly killed fish slices are cooked in sour soup and are particularly flavorful. A bite of the fish tastes sour, spicy, fresh and fragrant.

Southeast Guizhou’s beef tripe hotpot may be ranked among the top “dark hotpots”.

The so-called ox stomach is the semi-digested food taken out of the cow's stomach. Cows are ruminants, and they will regurgitate the grass they eat into their mouths to chew again to improve digestion efficiency. Take out this green and yellow semi-digested stomach content, filter the juice from it as the soup base, add a variety of chili peppers, peppercorns and other seasonings, and put sour radish, and it becomes the ox stomach pot base. The cooked meat will be a little bitter at first, but then you can taste a hint of grassy aroma, which is endless aftertaste.

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Another hot pot that can be on the list of "dark hot pot" is probably Yunnan's mushroom hot pot. However, this "dark" is not because of the taste, but because - if it is not fully cooked, it may cause poisoning.

Therefore, during the mushroom season in Yunnan, many restaurants that serve mushrooms have a rule that they do not give chopsticks to customers after the mushrooms are put into the pot. They only give chopsticks to customers when the mushrooms are fully cooked.

Yunnan Baoshan Huopiao Beef Hotpot is a big pot like a ladle. The soup base is made of beef bones with pepper, chili and other seasonings. The beef must be high mountain beef. This kind of cattle has been eating grass and drinking spring water in the mountains with high terrain and plenty of sunshine since childhood. The beef is cooked in the thick soup and served with rice, which is perfect.

Northeastern pickled cabbage and white meat hotpot, Lijiang cured pork ribs hotpot... How many kinds of hotpot are there in China, and which one is the best is probably an unanswered question. Although people often have different hotpot choices due to different places of living and tastes, the lively atmosphere is enough to bridge all differences.

There is nothing that can't be solved by a hotpot meal. If there is, then have two meals.

Author: Erzhu

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