Links 🔗

Hotpot through the Eyes of a Westerner

Hotpot is one of my favourite foods to have, the mixture of ingredients, the belly warming soup and flavour absolutely tickles my taste buds. In this week’s issue of Pub Convos, let’s talk about hotpot and its origins and why the hotpot you have in your mind right now may not be the same in different parts of the world.

What is Hotpot and where did it originate from?

• Hotpot is a dish where a simmering pot of plain or spicy broth is used to cook various ingredients from meat, soy products and vegetables.

• The concept of hotpot is said to have originated from Mongolian horse riders where they would use their steel helmets as vessels to cook food over an open fire. The horsemen would then huddle in a circle around the pot(helmet) and eat while also keeping warm.

• Some sources claim that this concept of eating originated from Chinese boatmen who discovered a cheap way of cooking many ingredients.

• As history went on, the concept spread to the courts of the Emperor of China and eventually all over China where it evolved with regional influences.

Regional Variations

• The most popular variation of hotpot would be southern style hot pot where the broth used tends to be spicy and uses ingredients such as szechuan peppers and dried chillies to flavour the broth.

• Northern variations of hot pot tend to include broths with a milder flavour and gets its flavour from the meat that is cooked in the broth.

• In Malaysia, hot pot is colloquially referred to as a steamboat. This is due to the resemblance of the central chimney of the pot to a steam chimney of a steam powered boat like the one pictured above.

English Hotpot?

• Despite its popularity around the world, in the great county of Lancashire, England, hotpot carries a different meaning.

• The Lancashire hotpot is still served in a pot but it's actually a stew of mutton, chopped up onions topped with sliced potatoes or puff pastry.

• It originated during the Industrial Revolution where men and women had strict working hours and didn’t have time to cook therefore they would bung ingredients into a pot and leave it in an oven while they work.

• The name hot pot is said to have originated from the hodge podge of ingredients which included oysters back in the day.

I don’t celebrate this holiday but I get a day off work from it so the least I could do is learn about it.

Before you go...

• Check out Issue #13 of One Thing This Week where we talked about Mr Beast Burger 🍔
• Let us know your thoughts about this on Twitter
• Have any friends or colleagues that would be interested in this issue? Forward them this email!
• You could also read past issues here

Let's Connect

This series is brought to you by Adrian Fok (@adfok15). He will be writing about fascinating stuff that will help you to have a more insightful conversation in pubs or mamaks.