HOT POT

So I've mentioned eating hot pot a few times before, and during our trip to Dandong I finally remembered to take some pictures. FIrst a quick explanation of what it is. Basically a hot pot is a large pot of boiling water with spices added that you cook vegetables and meat in at your table. It's a great food in the winter for warming you up quick. We usually order beef and lamb (cut super thin) and then tons of vegetables. My favorite is something I'd never tried before called wintermelon. Usually eating hot pot takes quite awhile because we have to cook things in stages. Here's a few pictures to help you visualize:





My first hot pot experience was at a nicer restaurant with some people Nick had been meeting with for work. They took us to a restaurant where we each had our own individual hot pot and a turntable in the middle to pass the various foods around. It was really fun and we got to try a whole variety of things, some good like wintermelon, and some not so good like Chinese mushrooms. The next experience was a little more stressful for me. We were with a group of 8 people all sharing one pot. I guess everything gets sterilized because it is boiling, but I still can't handle it. People kept dumping in more food before the previous batch had cooked and so some things weren't done while others were overcooked and you had to dig to find food you wanted. My poor little organized brain couldn't handle the chaos. Let's just say I left that meal still very hungry! Our last hot pot experience was just the 2 of us sharing a pot and that wasn't too bad, Nick understands my compulsive need to organize everything right down to food.