Time for the Hotpot season

The boiling soup, raw meat, fresh seafood and season’s vegetables lay out on the table. Six of Jody Lin’s friends get together around a big pot and dip the food into soy sauce, chili oil and vinegar. People try to warm their bodies with hot food on a cold day. The hotpot season is here.

The University of Kansas Data Analyst, Jody Lin who start cooking on a daily basis about eight years now. Jody and her friends often get together for hotpot in the wintertime.   

            Although some eat hotpots year-round, fall and winter are the biggest season for people to eat hotpots.

“Winter is the best time for us to sell hotpots,” the manager of the Panda & Plum Garden, Raymond Peng said. “We sell about 30 more hotpots than the summer time last year.”

History 

The hotpots exist since 16 century B.C.  According to the chinahighlights.com it was invented for people who live in the north part of China to defend against cold weather. It spread out to the south during the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-906). People who live in northern China started to put beef and mutton in the soup, and southerners did the same with seafood. Then hotpots become one of the popular dishes throughout the whole area of China.

“I’d like to have it when the weather is cooler in fall and winter,” Lin said. “I rarely have hotpots during the summer.”

Hotpots

There are many kinds of hotpots: Mongolian style, spicy, seafood, and ginger duck, etc. The most common one in United States is that people use a pot that has a divider in the middle, so people can have spicy soup in one side and non-spicy soup on the other side. Then people usually put sliced beef, pork, lamb, meatballs, tofu, and daikon. Other popular food to put in the hotpot is mushrooms, dumplings, shrimp, squid, sliced fish and vegetables.

“People can just put about anything they like into the hotpot,” Lin said. “Just throw the food in the pot and let it boil.” 

The food are led on the table ready for cooking-By Johnny Chen, 2012

Start to eat

One of the places people in Lawrence can get the hotpots is Panda & Plum Garden. It is $18 per person and the restaurant requires at least two people per hotpot. Customers must make a reservation.

“We prefer that people make a 24-hour reservation, so it gives us time to prepare the food and vegetable,” Peng said.

There are other places surve hot pot:  Hibachi Grill SupremeBuffet, 8 Flavors, and King Buffet. Also, people who would rather cook their own hotpots at home can find the materials and ingredients at Oriental Market or 888 International Market in Overland Park, Kan.

“It’s super easy to make it,” Lin said. “When the weather is cold, the hot soup keeps you warm.”

Sliced beef, vegetables, and golden mushrooms in hotpot-By Johnny Chen, 2012

Reported by Hao Hsuan Niu in Lawrence Kansas.