The Beijing Hot Pot Experience: A Beginner's Guide To This Spicy Feast

Eating hot pot is a popular social activity in Beijing, China. It is believed that the hot pot cooking technique originated in Mongolia, where warriors would boil meat over campfires in their helmets. The dish is typically enjoyed as a group meal, with people gathering around the pot to cook and eat together. In Beijing, the most popular style is shuàn yángròu (涮羊肉), or dip boil mutton, which is cooked in a brass vessel heated by coal. The broth is typically mild, with the flavour coming from the freshness of the ingredients and the side sauces.

Choose your broth

Choosing the right broth is essential when planning a hot pot party. This is because all the food will be cooked in the broth, so it's important to select a flavour that will please all your guests.

The two most popular types of hot pot broth are Chongqing and Sichuan hot pot, which are spicy and incorporate tongue-numbing Sichuan peppers and handfuls of peppercorns. The result is a rich, muddy red, and eye-wateringly spicy broth that will clear your sinuses. However, if spicy isn't your style, there are plenty of other options to choose from. Most restaurants offer a variety of broths, including mushroom soup, vegetable-based, and chicken broths.

If you're making your own broth at home, you can also experiment with different ingredients to find a flavour that you like. For example, you could try adding ginger, bay leaves, garlic cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise, or cloves to your broth for extra flavour.

If you want to offer your guests a choice of broths, you can use a split pot, which will allow you to serve two different types of broth at the same time. This is a great option if you have guests with different taste preferences or spice tolerances.

When planning a hot pot party, it's also important to consider the dietary preferences of your guests and the number of guests you'll be serving. A big hot pot usually serves six people perfectly, but it's a good idea to have some extra broth on hand in case you need to accommodate more guests.

Pick your ingredients

When it comes to picking your ingredients for a Beijing hot pot, you will be spoiled for choice. The beauty of hot pot is that you can choose from a wide variety of ingredients and cook them to your liking.

The most common type of Beijing hot pot is shuan yangrou (or shuan rou), which translates to "dip boil mutton" or "instant boil mutton". This is a simple dish, with the flavour coming from the freshness of the ingredients and the sauce on the side. The mutton is thinly sliced and boiled in water, with seaweed, ginger, jujubes, leeks, goji berries, and dried shrimp.

However, there are many other ingredients you can choose from to create your perfect hot pot. If you are a meat-eater, you could select beef, chicken, duck, fish, or prawns. For vegetarians, there are mushrooms, (sliced) potatoes, cabbage, and tofu.

The ingredients are usually served with dipping sauces, which can be made from a variety of condiments and spices. In Beijing, the most common sauces are made with sesame sauce, chives, and cilantro. Other options include chilli oil, soy sauce, garlic sauce, vinegar, pepper sauce, seafood sauce, and green onions.

A typical hot pot will include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, vermicelli, sliced potatoes, bean products, egg dumplings, tofu, and seafood. It is important to cook the ingredients thoroughly before eating, and to add them to the broth in the correct order, with the longest-cooking ingredients going in first.

Prepare your dipping sauces

The fun of eating hot pot in Beijing is in the variety of dipping sauces you can choose from. In most restaurants, you can choose from at least a dozen choices of condiments and spices.

No true Beijinger would think of going without sesame sauce (zhima jiang, 芝麻酱), chives (cong, 葱), and cilantro (xiangcai, 香菜). Other common ingredients to mix into your sauce include sesame oil, soy bean sauce, chilli oil, coriander, rice wine, preserved beancurd sauce, and sweet garlic.

The typical Chongqing dipping sauce contains sesame oil and is mixed with crushed fresh garlic and chopped spring onions. In Taiwan, a popular dipping sauce consists of shacha sauce and raw egg yolk with stir-fried beef.

In Beijing, the most popular style is shuàn yángròu (涮羊肉), or "dip boil mutton", which is cooked in a brass vessel heated with coal. The flavour comes from the freshness of the ingredients and the sauce on the side, made of sesame paste, tianmianjiang (甜面酱), and fǔrǔ（腐乳) — a fermented beancurd condiment.

Cook your ingredients

The fun of eating a Beijing hot pot starts with the cooking vessel itself. Unlike the modern electric hot plate, the traditional Beijing hot pot, or shuan rou, is cooked in a doughnut-shaped pot that encircles a miniature coal-burning stove. The smoke billows out of a tall cone chimney in the middle, adding to the experience.

Once the water or broth is boiling, it's time to start cooking your ingredients. The beauty of a hot pot is that you can cook a variety of ingredients to your liking, making it a highly customizable meal.

The most common ingredients for a Beijing hot pot are thinly sliced meats, such as beef, mutton, or lamb, and fresh vegetables. You can also add seafood like shrimp, beancurd products like tofu, and even dumplings.

When adding your ingredients to the pot, it's important to manage your cooking times. Start with the items that take the longest to cook, such as meatballs or fish balls, and then move on to the thinly sliced meats and green vegetables. Use your chopsticks to dip the ingredients into the boiling broth and cook them until they are done to your liking.

Once your ingredients are cooked, don't forget to dip them in the sauce before taking a bite. The sauce is an essential part of the Beijing hot pot experience, and you can choose from a variety of condiments and spices to create your perfect blend. Common ingredients for the sauce include sesame sauce, chives, cilantro, chili oil, soy sauce, garlic, vinegar, and pepper sauce.

Enjoy your meal

Now that you've prepared your hot pot, it's time to eat!

First, pour water or a soup stock into the pot. The best choice is a soup cooked with nutritious foods such as pork bones. Once the water or soup is boiled, you can begin your hot pot experience.

Use your chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat, fish, or vegetable and put it into the boiled water. You can also add a dumpling if you've ordered one. Cook your food for a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on what it is. Meat should be cooked until it loses its pink colour.

Once your food is cooked, remove it from the pot and dip it into a sauce of your choice before eating it. Common sauces include sesame sauce, sesame oil, soy bean sauce, chilli oil, coriander, rice wine, preserved beancurd sauce, and sweet garlic.

When you've finished eating your ingredients, you can drink the broth, which will have been flavoured by the ingredients you cooked in it.

Hot pot is a great social meal, perfect for groups. People gather around the pot, chatting, eating, drinking, and having fun.

Frequently asked questions