Hunan hot pot

Hunan cuisine is one of the eight major cuisines in China. Since Hunan is located in the south, Hunan cuisine is mainly spicy and numbing. Speaking of hot pot, the first thing that comes to mind is Sichuan hot pot, because Sichuan hot pot does taste very good, and Sichuan hot pot can be seen in many areas. But today I will explain to you several types of Hunan hotpot.

Sichuan hot pot ingredients menu

1. Must-order dishes

Generally speaking, tripe and duck intestines are a must. I personally have a preference for chicken feet. I throw the frozen chicken feet into the pot as soon as it opens, and cook them slowly until the meat melts in my mouth. I take out the chicken feet that have absorbed the hot pot juice, dip them in sesame oil, and they are so soft and tender that they look like flowers blooming. Then some hot pot restaurants have their own special dishes that you must order. For example, the spicy beef from Xiaoyu Hotpot, or the crispy pork from Memory Old Stove, you must order the specialties, and there is always a reason for them to be specialties.

Let’s talk about the dipping sauce first. Although there are more and more new-style hot pot dishes now, there is a large table of dipping sauce, such as peanuts, green peppers, sesame seeds, and dried chilies. But if you go to an old hotpot restaurant, the dipping sauces are always just sesame oil, mashed garlic, salt and MSG. If you have a special preference, you can ask for cilantro, but usually those four are enough. Don't ask if they have sesame paste at an old hot pot restaurant. They will only answer you, sorry, we only have poker.

2. The order of putting vegetables in hot pot

Generally speaking, frozen meat → meat that can be cooked by blanching → meat or root vegetables that can be cooked in a short time → vegetables for refreshing taste (can be cooked by blanching, such as cucumber slices, bean sprouts)

Let’s talk about the frozen meat first: generally it is shrimp dumplings, meatballs, chicken feet, tendons and the like. Throwing them in first means that these things will take a long time to cook. If you put them in at the beginning, by the third round of cooking, you can just scoop them out and eat them. However, it is not recommended to order too much of this type of food. First, they are not fresh and not tasty, and second, frozen food does not taste good.

Boiled meat (this is the first round): tripe, duck intestines, and old meat slices are the three standard items (old meat slices can be replaced with various meat slices, generally meat slices are blanched instead of boiled, they will taste bad if overcooked). Use chopsticks to simmer the meat, just roll up the tripe and circle the duck intestines. The meat is good when it changes color. Ah, I remembered a tip. The tripe and duck intestines must be blanched in boiling water. If they are blanched in half-boiled water, they will have a soft texture. If they are not crispy, they will not taste good.

The second round: While you are eating the first round, put the meat that is easy to cook in to cook, so that after the first round, you can quickly take it out and start the second round. The easy-to-cook meats cannot be cooked for a long time nor can they be overcooked. Generally, there are fresh meatballs (I strongly recommend something called coriander meatballs. Even I, who don’t eat coriander, can eat a whole plate of them. They are delicious when cooked), eels, fish fillets, yellow throat, tofu, blood sausage and the like.

Round 3: Eat the frozen food you cooked before. If you eat too much meat and feel a bit greasy, make some Vieille. Haha, just kidding. Vieille is a standard now. In the past, I loved Eagle Tea the most, or the kind of tea with a slightly bitter taste. It was very helpful in removing the greasy feeling. At this time, you can pour the lotus root slices, potatoes, vermicelli, and mushrooms into the pot and cook them, so that you can eat them in the fourth round. If you like the crispy texture of lotus root slices, you can add them later.

The fourth round: This round focuses on vegetables. Cucumber slices, enoki mushrooms, and lotus root slices are what I must order every time. In fact, it’s not that green leafy vegetables are not edible, they just contain a little oil. You can try those with stronger tastes. For example, a friend of mine likes to blanch water spinach in hot pot, but it just looks greasy to me. This round of eating is basically over. Just eat some watermelon and you can fill your stomach and walk.

With this complete menu of Sichuan hot pot ingredients, we can enjoy authentic Sichuan hot pot at home. Sichuan and Chongqing are not far from each other, but the taste of their hotpot is a little different. Sichuan's hotpot is spicier, while Chongqing's hotpot is more spicy, which is great for people who love spicy food. If you want to eat more authentic Sichuan hotpot, you can travel to Sichuan, where you can not only eat a variety of delicacies, but also see a variety of scenery.