A single-serving hot pot comes to a boil at Nine Spices Fondue in Gainesville, FL.
Exploring the features of a cuisine full of Asian culture
Imagine sitting in front of a gigantic pot, watching soup broth come to a frantic boil and unleash swirls of aromatic steam. It’s hot, sputtering loudly, and smells like heaven on earth — but that’s not all. Surrounding the pot are countless small dishes holding food ranging from bright red meat to chopped up greens. This is the beauty of a very popular style of Asian cuisine known as hot pot, and there is so much about it to discover.
History
Hot pot originally came from China. According to the Vegas Hotpot restaurant, back in the Jin Dynasty, Mongolian horsemen gathered together and used their helmets to boil soup over a fire and then added meat into the soup to cook and eat.
Even though China tried to resist the Mongols, they couldn’t resist their style of eating. In fact, in their G Adventures article, travel bloggers Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott explain that China ended up mimicking the Mongolian style of soup and modifying it to make their own version — the hot pot people are familiar with today. Eventually, hot pot evolved into a dish that, like China, many other Asian countries accepted and made their own.
The rest of this story will be appearing in issue 18 of Sparks Magazine. This story and the rest of issue 18 will be digitally released on May 1, 2020.
Photos by Hanzhi Chen
