Hot pot is an original Chinese cuisine with a long history, which can date back to Xihan Dynasty. Eating hot pot has been very common in Song Dynasty. Then hot pot spread to Mongolia area in Yuan Dynasty, where people cooked beef and mutton by hotpot. When it went to Qing Dynasty, hot pot is not only prevalent in the folk, but it has become a famous “royal dish” whose materials were pheasant and other game.
Generally speaking, hot pot refers to cook water or soup by pot, then put food into the boiled soup to cook thoroughly for eat. It features while cooking, eating food when it is still hot. Hotpot eating is hot, spicy and salty, but not greasy. It is suitable for the climate of the mountain or cold weather. If you do not eat spicy food, there is no problem as there a a kind of pot with both spicy and light soup. People can cook food based on their own flavor.
The typical hot pot ingredients include a variety of mets, seafood, vegetables, soy products, mushrooms, egg products, ect. You just need to put your favorite ingredients into the boiled water or soup and wait for cooking thoroughly to eat. Some might eat with various dipping sauces.
Sichuan hot pot can be divided into Chengdu hot pot and Chongqing hot put. Chengdu hot pot is spread from Chongqing. Then it is further enriched and developed in style and content. Chengdu hot pot soup often use chicken, fish, beef stick bone as the main raw material with spices. It tastes spicy, but not as spicy as Chongqing hot pot. Chengdu hot pot use diversified base materials to make the taste evolve from single spicy flavor to spicy-light, three flavors, four flavors and medicated-nourishing pot as well ad fish pot and so on.
Chengdu hot pot is the beloved food for locals. When you travel to Chengdu, you will find the most restaurants in the city are hot pot restaurants. When you visit to locals, they treat guests with home hot pot. As the name card of Chengdu eating culture, hop pot will be a necessary meal during the Chengdu tour. Although this kind of hot pot is taken as the Chongqing specialty by the locals, it has become famous and popular all over the country for a long time
If you travel to China to chase authentic Chinese cuisine, or if can eat hot food or you are not afraid to try something new and local, we highly recommend you to choose this meal when you travel to Chengdu. Just imagine, use your chopsticks to pick up a meat cooked in the broth, and then, put it into your month with the smell of chili spreads over your month, it will be an enjoyable experience more than a meal for living.