Hotpot

Saturday night Amy and I went out for hotpot with a couple of friends. Hotpot is a dish from the province of Sichuan, whose cuisine is famous throughout the country for its fiery food. I am convinced anyone can cook Sichuan food, provided they throw enough hot peppers and peppercorns into the assorted meat and vegetable dishes. Naturally I love it.

At a hotpot meal, a large bowl filled with oil and peppers is brought to the table and placed over a gas burner. When the oil reaches a steady boil, the food is ready to be cooked. As you can imagine in a city where few buildings are centrally heated, a meal over a gas burner is quite popular in the middle of the winter.

The foods placed in the pot are fairly standard: mutton, beef, potatoes, cabbage and pig veins(?!!). While I have tried hotpot before, the pig veins were definitely a new experience for Amy and I. The Sichuan native at our table assured us that it was very popular in her hometown, and stated that the pig veins just needed to boil for a long time. The pig veins did boil for a long time, but in my opinion, it was to no avail. The sensation was roughly akin to gnawing on a bicycle tire slathered in Tabasco sauce. Fortunately, the remainder of the food was fantastic, as was the time with our friends.