ASIANish

The other night, El and I went to the Tai Kok Tsui (大角嘴) area with her Uncle and Aunt to the best Hot Pot I've ever eaten. If you've never had Chinese Hot Pot, you've been missing out. Ever since my last trip to Hong Kong, I've been craving 1 thing, "Da Bean Lo" aka Chinese Hot Pot (火锅); and not from just any Hot Pot place, specifically Li Qi (力奇火锅) on Kok Cheung Road in West Mong Kok.

What is Chinese Hot Pot?

Basically, you start off with a pot of boiling broth in the center of the table. Order up a bunch of raw meats, vegetables, and seafood; then boil your way to a delicious meal. Since the meats and veggies typically arrive unseasoned, much of the flavor is derived from the broth and the dipping sauce.

There are a wide variety of broths to choose from. Some broths have a very spicy side which is reminiscent of a Szechwan style, and some have a more mild flavor that consists of a chicken stock for the base. For our meal, we went with the "Yin Yang" broth where the pot is separated down the middle with a divider, with one side a mild flavor broth and the other a more rich flavored and typically spicier broth. For our mild broth, it was a fish stock base accentuated with tofu, napa cabbage, green onions, cilantro, and thousand year old eggs (皮蛋); and for the slightly spicier side, we had "sa cha (沙茶酱)" sauce also accentuated with tofu and green onions.

The Technique and Etiquette of Eating Hot Pot

Although Hot Pot isn't complex, it is definitely a different dining experience. In a lot of ways it's similar to Fondue, but understanding the basic technique and etiquette will save you some embarrassment.

The Tools

The tools of the trade are simple, a pair of cooking chopsticks and a small perforated ladle. When participating in Chinese Hot Pot, make sure you keep your cooking chopsticks separated from your eating chopsticks. No one really wants to share your cooties.

The ladle is used to cook smaller items that you potentially might lose in the broth (e.g. thinly sliced pork, beef, or lamb). Simply put the item in the ladle and dip it into the boiling broth. Once it's in there, don't be shy; it's perfectly fine to bob the ladle up and down in the broth to throughly cook your item. But, make sure when you're taking the ladle out of the broth that you let the liquid drain off. You don't want to leave an embarrassing trail of broth from the Hot Pot back to your bowl.

Cooking the Food

At any time, feel free to start throwing larger items into the broth for the rest of the table. This may include, fish / beef / pork / cuttlefish / etc. balls, large leafy vegetables, assorted mushrooms, blocks of frozen tofu, or noodles. Exception to this rule are live jumbo prawns, large butter clams, abalone, or razor clams. Although these items take a little longer to cook, it's generally proper etiquette to get the groups consensus before dunking these into the mix.

Cooking time is the most important aspect of having an excellent meal, and will instantly differentiate yourself as a novice or expert. Although there's a great deal of satisfaction of having a group meal where you take your time to cook, eat, and talk; the whole point of Hot Pot is to be able to eat the freshest meats and seafood, where every bite is cooked to perfection.

The key is to never over cook your food. If you cook your seafood properly, there's a natural sweetness in flavor that can only be achieved when it is cooked perfectly. The texture should be firm and crispy, and never mushy or tough.

Beef, lamb, pork, and other meats are shaved into very thin slices; so, little cooking time is needed. This way it preserves the tenderness of the meat. Ideally you'll want to remove the meat from the broth just as the last bit of pinkness leaves the meat, typically within 20-30 seconds of touching the water. Novices tend to let the meat "stew" which toughens up the meat, defeating the purpose of Hot Pot.

Vegetables often take a little longer to cook, but not by much. Over cooking the veggies can lead to a limp and soggy experience. Although I'm not big on veggies, my favorites are Chinese Water Spinach, A Choy, and Watercress.

Geoduck Clam (象拔蚌) gets it's own special section because it's a must when eating Chinese Hot Pot. In many places, people will eat Geoduck sashimi style, and for Chinese Hot Pot, it's virtually the same. The meat of the geoduck is thinly sliced and laid on top of a bed of ice. When cooking the geoduck, you simply want to dip it in for just an instant to remove any strong "ocean" odors. The taste should be sweet and the texture crunchy. You'll know if you've overcooked it if the other members at your table are staring at you in awe and dumbfounded on how long you let the geoduck sit in the water. Cook time 1-3 secs (4 secs MAX if it's "dark meat")

Don't Leave HK without visiting Li Qi Chinese Hot Pot(力奇火锅)

I can't emphasize enough how great of an experience we had at Li Qi Chinese Hot Pot(力奇火锅). If you're planning on going, definitely call ahead to book your reservations. Even though many places in Asia and the US have poor turnouts for Chinese Hot Pot during the summer months due to the heat, Hong Kong is the exception. In Hong Kong everything is air-conditioned, and even in a packed restaurant with 20 boiling hot pots + 90 people, it was still nice and cool.

Since Uncle Pang treated us to the meal I don't have any prices this time around. But I'd suspect prices to be at or cheaper than our experience at Lamma Island.