Hot Pot Cooking
There is nothing quite like surrounding a pot of boiling, seasoned water, dunking fresh vegetables and tofu and mushrooms and whole garlic cloves and super thin slices of lamb or other meat in it until they are cooked, and then enjoying the taste of these delicacies.
Ping broke out the hot pot when it snowed on Friday and the temperature dropped down around freezing. We kept it going last night, and will do it again this evening. Ping has perfected her seasoning, and announced last night that we no longer need to go to the Little Sheep restaurant for hot pot food.
While I worked yesterday, Ping bought some of my favorite fresh vegetables. One of them is snow pea leaves. This is the first time I have eaten them when they were cooked in a hot pot. I found them to be incredibly delicious and ate a lot of them. Cici, surprisingly to me, doesn't care for them. Her favorite vegetable cooked in the hot pot is Chinese cabbage, which I also enjoy very much. Ping and I also enjoy the lotus root cooked this way. Cici eats it, but it also isn't her favorite.
The Japanese call this kind of cooking shabu shabu, as I recall. I ate it many times in Tokyo when I went there for business meetings. It was my first experience eating chrysanthemum leaves and stems. They were okay there, but in the Chinese version of hot pot, I enjoy them much better with Ping's seasoning or the seasoning at Little Sheep. Little Sheep is a Mongolian restaurant, and they have some rather cold weather in Mongolia, so I understand why hot pot cooking is used there.
In the winter of 2008, when China had its worst winter in 50 years, we were in Guangzhou. There is no heat in the buildings in Guangzhou, so we were constantly cold. We wore our heavy coats even inside the buildings. One day we went to the Little Sheep restaurant near our home in Guangzahou. It was the only time we felt warm in about a two week period of time. The food warms you from the inside out, and the steam from the boiling pot warms you from the outside in.
It is hard to imagine a healthier way of cooking. We are planning to have some Chinese friends come to our home during the upcoming holidays so we can enjoy some delicious hot pot cooking with them. In fact, I am sure we will not cook a turkey for Christmas this year. We would much rather enjoy a selection of Chinese vegetables that are cooked in a hot pot.
Ping broke out the hot pot when it snowed on Friday and the temperature dropped down around freezing. We kept it going last night, and will do it again this evening. Ping has perfected her seasoning, and announced last night that we no longer need to go to the Little Sheep restaurant for hot pot food.
While I worked yesterday, Ping bought some of my favorite fresh vegetables. One of them is snow pea leaves. This is the first time I have eaten them when they were cooked in a hot pot. I found them to be incredibly delicious and ate a lot of them. Cici, surprisingly to me, doesn't care for them. Her favorite vegetable cooked in the hot pot is Chinese cabbage, which I also enjoy very much. Ping and I also enjoy the lotus root cooked this way. Cici eats it, but it also isn't her favorite.
The Japanese call this kind of cooking shabu shabu, as I recall. I ate it many times in Tokyo when I went there for business meetings. It was my first experience eating chrysanthemum leaves and stems. They were okay there, but in the Chinese version of hot pot, I enjoy them much better with Ping's seasoning or the seasoning at Little Sheep. Little Sheep is a Mongolian restaurant, and they have some rather cold weather in Mongolia, so I understand why hot pot cooking is used there.
In the winter of 2008, when China had its worst winter in 50 years, we were in Guangzhou. There is no heat in the buildings in Guangzhou, so we were constantly cold. We wore our heavy coats even inside the buildings. One day we went to the Little Sheep restaurant near our home in Guangzahou. It was the only time we felt warm in about a two week period of time. The food warms you from the inside out, and the steam from the boiling pot warms you from the outside in.
It is hard to imagine a healthier way of cooking. We are planning to have some Chinese friends come to our home during the upcoming holidays so we can enjoy some delicious hot pot cooking with them. In fact, I am sure we will not cook a turkey for Christmas this year. We would much rather enjoy a selection of Chinese vegetables that are cooked in a hot pot.
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