hot pot (thing)

Hot pot rice refers to rice steamed in a clay pot with fragrant foods on top. Frequently, these include all the different kinds of Chinese preserved meats, including preserved fish, duck, pork, and sausage and vegetables, like lotus root. Since they’re preserved, these meats are very salty, and as the rice steams, both the aroma of the preserved meats and the scent of the earthen pot permeate the rice. The longer the rice is steamed, the more fragrant the rice becomes, so it’s typical for diners to order a rice hot pot as soon as they are seated, or even before they get their table.

The rice comes to the table in its clay pot and when the server removes the lid, that’s when the smell of hot pot goodness hits. Everyone around the table will look in anticipation as the server then puts the toppings on a separate plate, add some dark soy sauce to the pot and mix it in with the rice. Dark soy sauce is a special kind of soy sauce that’s less salty than regular soy sauce and slightly sweet and goes well with the hot pot rice. After that, everyone will take some rice, put it in their own bowls, put some of the other meat on top and start shoveling. It’s ok to add more dark soy sauce to your own bowl if you want it to be saltier, but use the good stuff that came with the pot and not the stuff from the Kikkoman bottle.

Hot pot rice is a quintessential dish in Cantonese style cooking. In Hong Kong, restaurants that specialize in making hot pot rice will put pots and steamers outside on the street to entice people to enter their restaurant to try their dishes. A lot of restaurants also have hot pot specials late at night.

In Los Angeles, try MPV Garden in Monterey Park. They have late night specials, with dishes for $5-$6 and hot pot rice for $6 after 9:30 p.m. Best of all, the meal comes with soup-of-the-day, red bean dessert, iced chrysanthemum tea and hot tea all for free. You can't get good eats that cheap at Denny’s.