Hot Pot is for Everyone
Illustrations by Ben McDonald
You’ve eaten hot pot at a restaurant, or at the very least seen it offered at restaurants near you. But did you know that thanks to the minimal prep required, it’s actually the perfect dinner party meal to have with friends at home?
Melanie Xu, a lifelong fan and staunch advocate of Chongqing Ma La hot pot, makes the case.
Transcript of the episode can be found below, or hosted directly on Audioboom.
Thank you to Mel and Andrew for their hot pot hospitality!
Lecker is on Twitter, Instagram and now TikTok.
If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast
Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.
*********
Transcript
Lucy Dearlove 00:00
This is Lecker. I'm Lucy Dearlove. This month...Hot Pot is for Everyone, with Melanie Xu.
Melanie Xu 00:18
Let's buy some coriander for dipping sauce.
Lucy Dearlove 00:22
Great.
Melanie Xu 00:23
And let's get some mushrooms as well. We've got some Chinese leaf at home already for some veggies to go in...could get some...let's get some Morning Glory, that'll be nice. I really like it and the little hollow tubes are very good for hot pot. Where is Andrew with his trolley?
Lucy Dearlove 00:55
I guess I should probably take a step back and ask you to explain what it is to somebody... if somebody had never heard of it before, how would you describe it?
Melanie Xu 01:05
Yeah, so I would say hot pot, I guess in its like, basest, most simplest form, I would consider hot pot, as we're discussing it to be like, you take a big bowl of broth of some sort, flavoured broth of some sort. And then it comes on the dinner table. And there needs to be a heat source. And then what you do is you put in all your raw ingredients, and you cook it in that broth, and you eat that at the table. I think those are what...that's what I would consider to be like, the fundamental sort of pillars.
Lucy Dearlove 01:41
Oh is that the one where you cut it and it's got the holes in it?
Melanie Xu 01:44
Yeah.
Lucy Dearlove 01:45
I've never seen it whole
Melanie Xu 01:46
It's soooo tasty in hot pot...and just so tasty in general. Big fan. Let's get some....soy bean sprouts.
Lucy Dearlove 02:01
Soy bean sprouts! Great.
Melanie Xu 02:04
Which are nice and soupy. Because I know there's like other things that are like called hot pot and like that sort of thing. Yeah, a Lancashire hot pot and like I think, you know, like certain sort of, like, Korean stews as well, but when I think about like hot pot I think of cooking it at the table in a broth, and like, you know, that broth gets kind of like, cooked down, like more complicated over time. And like you eat it over time and that sort of thing. I think like, for me, it's like you're actively cooking all the time, you know, because there are like instances of it that you get kind of, sort of the ingredients are all in the pot and like the broth's in there. And you cook it and then you bring it over and like that's also a hot pot, but I wouldn't consider it the same type of hot pot, if that makes sense.
Lucy Dearlove 02:11
Like a Lancashire hot pot! Yeah, yeah.
Melanie Xu 02:53
So like maybe splitting hairs but like...
Lucy Dearlove 02:56
No, it's you answering the question, you know, you can be as as dictatorial as you like!
Melanie Xu 03:01
But for me, it's definitely like there's a heat source on the table. There's a big bowl of broth in the middle of the table and the idea is that you're like cooking things in that to like eat and you can do that kind of like as a constant stream.
Lucy Dearlove 03:17
Wow this place is amazing.
Melanie Xu 03:18
I love it so much
Lucy Dearlove 03:22
Like, genuinely incredible.
Melanie Xu 03:23
There are closer like Chinese supermarkets to us, but it's just not as good and I love it.
Lucy Dearlove 03:29
Yeah that's fair.
Melanie Xu 03:31
So...let's get some tofu. Got some of that already, deep fried tofu. Think we've got some rice cakes at home actually. So we can put those in. And let's put in...let's get some of this. When it comes to hot pot, I'm very much like obsessed with the vegetables and like the vegetarian side of it. So I like the meaty bits and they're good. And I certainly wouldn't like skip out on it. But like personally I'm just very obsessed with having a really big variety of like vegetables and stuff because they soak up all the broth and like that's where you get all the different textures and stuff. Absolutely, we'd have like lotus root, love some like bamboo sheets there, like you know, a ridiculous variety of different tofus is like ideal, loads of different types of mushrooms are also great in it...like lots of kind of like leafy greens because they kind of like soak up all of the oil and the sauce and it's sort of...I just love anything that like takes up all the flavour of the spicy broth basically. So yeah, like for me it's actually like loads of vegetables. Right? I'm gonna get us some of the frozen meats, thinly cut ones.
Lucy Dearlove 04:58
Oh yeah.
Melanie Xu 05:00
Get some of that. And then. I think over there they'll have some like lamb, lamb as well. So it's kind of like...normally it's like thinly cooked beef or thinly cut lamb. You can have chicken and pork and stuff as well. It's just, it's just a preference. Europe's number one sliced meat brand! What else shall we go for? Ummmm... My one caveat is...you have to have spam. Like, will not accept hotpot without spam. I mean, obviously, I will. But I would really encourage everybody....
Lucy Dearlove 05:38
It will not go unnoticed!
Melanie Xu 05:39
I would really encourage everyone to have spam in the hot pot, because it's just perfect and delicious.
Lucy Dearlove 05:44
Do you just slice it and put it in?
Melanie Xu 05:44
Yeah, just slice it and put it in. It's delicious. Game Changer.
Lucy Dearlove 05:48
I've never had it...non fried.
Melanie Xu 05:49
Really?
Lucy Dearlove 05:50
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 05:50
Right, it's great. It's amazing. It's one of my favourite things. We've always had it like...or like luncheon meat in like some form like, like, it's always been part of like, hot pot for me.
Lucy Dearlove 06:02
So how do you generally approach like buying hot pot ingredients? Like, do you have like a number per person? Or like, do you not really think about that?
Melanie Xu 06:10
No, because I'm like a chronic over feeder. So basically, it's always fine. I always put too much.
Lucy Dearlove 06:17
It's much better that way though!
Melanie Xu 06:19
I'm probably more just a...going into the shop, seeing what there is and being like, this is what I'd like to have today kind of feeling. But every time we have hot pot at home, I always make far too much of it....I chop too much up. And then we're like eating chopped up stuff for days...
Lucy Dearlove 06:37
Yeah what's the leftover situation like?
Melanie Xu 06:39
It's fine. Because it's like, uncooked stuff right?
Lucy Dearlove 06:41
Oh, yeah, yeah...so you've just got raw....?
Melanie Xu 06:43
Yeah, you can, like use it for other things or you can do a sort of like Gan Guo thing, which is basically like a dry hot pot. Like you can stir fry it with the stuff. It's not really too much of a problem and like, not enough food makes me very nervous. I don't know why, like, really, I can't deal with it. It makes me really like stressed.
Lucy Dearlove 06:43
Yeah, I understand that.
Melanie Xu 07:07
The other thing that I like, but I don't ever really do at home, partly because if I'm honest I don't know entirely where to get it. And like I'm not very good at like prepping offal, but like so...I'm not a big offal person. That's what I will confess. And I always feel like a little bit ashamed because I feel like I should be more of an offall person. And you know, it's very good to eat all parts of the animal. I agree with all of that. But I never really find myself thinking, mmm I just really want to eat some kidneys right now. But offal in hot pot is like, great. Like, it's a great vehicle for it. Like, you know, like the flavours are really like good and strong. So I think for someone like me, who sometimes finds like offal, like a bit too, sort of like, yeah, like a bit bold. It's really good because it really kind of like covers all of that up and then all the stuff. Yeah, and then you're just like in there with all the good textures because like I get it from like a texture point of view. So kinda like...there's a lot of like stomach and like, I think when...we often have like, kind of like duck intestines and stuff and like, so when we go back to like China or like go to a restaurant that's kind of prepping all this stuff. It's quite nice to
Lucy Dearlove 08:12
Yeah, that would be intense to prep that.
Melanie Xu 08:14
Yeah, I don't even know where to start, to be honest, there would be a lot of Googling and then a lot of like...I still don't know if this is right! A really good friend of mine. His mom is like an absolutely phenomenal cook slash chef. And I remember going to her home for hot pot and they do it like quite differently to us actually. So they kind of like eat it almost in sort of like courses, so it's kind of like all of like this ingredient's gonna go in now and they're gonna cook it and stuff. So they did that with with like, kind of a sort of like offaly starter kind of thing. So I think like all the like little chicken hearts went in it and like we all just had like chicken hearts for a bit. And then like some of the intestines went in and we did that and that was really delicious.
Lucy Dearlove 08:51
Very organized hot pot.
Melanie Xu 08:56
Yes. A very different way of doing it. But I like that, like I feel like hot pot's very kind of like, you know, flexible, you can do whatever you want with it. And like, I don't know, it's one of those things where I...it's just not too precious, you know? Like, like, it's sort of like, well...
Lucy Dearlove 09:17
it's what you make of it.
Melanie Xu 09:18
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, that's why I kind of like really like, about it, it's good. I think the only order I have are there are are certain things that like take longer to cook.
Lucy Dearlove 09:32
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 09:33
So like the lotus root, for example. And like sometimes people put like potato in and things like that. They just like go in first. Yeah. And then they're just like, you just leave them until they're done. But otherwise and I'm very much a like, you throw in a bit of everything and then you just fish out what you want kind of thing. And like I'm very kinda like, I'm very pro sort of like, you just kind of dump in en masse, and then people pick out what they want. I, I have definitely like seen hot pot etiquette stuff where it's like, you can't take other people's things. And I'm like, What is that on about? Like, how do you even know what's your thing? Once it's in the pot, it's in the communal pot, guys. Like,
Lucy Dearlove 10:11
It's fair game!
Melanie Xu 10:12
Yeah, it's fair game... you just take out like, you know, don't be a dick! Because if someone's, I don't know, really desperately eyeing up something, don't take it from them! But otherwise, like, I've never, yeah, I've never felt like there's any particular rules. Maybe I'm just blindly wading through hot pot, like, offending everyone that I know, but no one's said anything to me about it.
Lucy Dearlove 10:35
Or maybe you're the true expert.
Melanie Xu 10:37
Maybe, I don't know. I don't know if that's true either. But certainly, I've never felt like there's this sort of like, oh, I put this in. So it's mine.
Lucy Dearlove 10:44
Right, right.
Melanie Xu 10:46
I think the only time when that is obvious is kinda like if you put in sort of like, the really thinly sliced meats that you often get, or like, offal, so they don't go in for very long.
Lucy Dearlove 10:55
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 10:56
Often you like, hold on to that in your chopsticks? In which case, no one's gonna take it. But that's like, you know, the reason for that is about timing. It's not to...hold on to it. Like YOUR food. I feel like...Yeah, like that...I protest against that.
Lucy Dearlove 11:14
Yeah, I think that's fair. It's kind of goes against the ethos of this, like communal...
Melanie Xu 11:19
Once it's in the pot? I think it's like, it's everyone's pot. That's what I think. You can just take what you want. It's absolutely fine.
Lucy Dearlove 11:32
So have you got the base?
Melanie Xu 11:34
Yeah. So they do sell bases...where are they? Oh, here. Yeah. So the one I get is very similar to this. But I basically just tend to when we go back to China, I will normally tell someone stuff that I want, and then my cousin will buy them for me or send them across. Premade bases is really what I would recommend, because they're really good. And they make things very easy, basically. Yeah. And like, can make your own but you know, like, why? When you can just buy a block of it for like £4. And they probably do it a lot better than I could, to be honest. I mean, I guess that's specifically to like, Ma La hot pot. I think there are other hot pots which are quite easy to do at home. Yeah. Alright, let's go. I've literally never done a shop this speedy before.
Lucy Dearlove 12:35
Yeah, that was impressive.
Melanie Xu 13:03
So I'm from Chongqing and like, there's like, special sort of like Chongqing Ma La like hot pots...so like the spicy, sort like Sichuan peppercorn hot pot. And to be honest, that's pretty much all I ever have and like, what I'm obsessed with. And what I'm gonna eat. And like I'm fully aware that there's like a million different varieties of hot pot and I think like you can get lots of them in like London and elsewhere now, but I literally just want this single type all the time. That's pretty much what we did, like when I was like young in Newcastle with my family as well we'd go out and like there would always have to be a spicy broth on the table.
Lucy Dearlove 13:41
So is your first, is your like, earliest memories of it eating it at home?
Melanie Xu 13:46
Er, no my earliest memories of it are having it when we'd go back to China.
Lucy Dearlove 13:50
Okay, okay.
Melanie Xu 13:51
So...and like I loved and like when I was a kid going back - and even now - like the thing that I will request most regularly is that we can...please can we go out for a hot pot meal because like I absolutely love it. Everyone knows that I love hot pot so like the various people we see You're always like, do you want to come out for hot pot? And I'm like, absolutely. I will come out for hot pot...and yeah, but yeah, so like my earliest memories are like going back to China and like being taken out for a meal and like having hotpot out.
Lucy Dearlove 14:21
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 14:22
And I would love it because like, whenever we go back as well, like, often, it's quite a lot of people...so you know, like family are there or like family friends are there and they've brought lots of people and like my memories of it always, like loads of us around the table. It's like quite noisy. It's quite chaotic. And like there's just loads of food and it's really fun. Like it's my favourite thing about it is that...it's social eating and I think that's what I love about you know, eating and making big meals and dinners in general, is like the social aspect but hotpot is like that, sort of like very much intensified.
Lucy Dearlove 15:11
Can you remember the first time you as an adult like had it? Was that like a big moment, like doing your own hotpot at home?
Melanie Xu 15:25
It wasn't actually too much of a big moment. The first time I can remember doing hot pot as a sort of adult was actually at university. So...with one of my friends who was also there. We were such greedy, greedy people all the time, I can remember we were always like cooking together and it was so nice. It was like, such a nice like friendship and like relationship to like have, I think, at university where we were just obsessed with food. And I remember he cycled to my room with his rice cooker in his rucksack and we had hot pot in the rice cooker, like you just like plug it in and stick it on the warm function, so...
Lucy Dearlove 16:13
That's genius.
Melanie Xu 16:14
Yeah. So that was like the first time I had like hotpot, kind of like at home as a sort of like adult, if that makes sense...we just like did it on the floor in my, in my like room at uni. We were going to use my rice cooker but we decided it was too small which I think was right because we were so greedy and so he cycled with his...with his in his backpack and we just like got all the things out and it was great. And like so...it was a really great memory and I loved it and I remember actually like being so full, like you know when you actually like can feel how full you are and it kind of feels like you've eaten like up to like your throat?
Lucy Dearlove 16:51
And you're like, I will never be hungry again.
Melanie Xu 16:53
Yeah, I remember that like distinctly because we absolutely stuffed ourselves, but I feel like it didn't really like clock it as like this necessarily like momentous occasion which was nice. So it was that transition of like being away from home. Like look, we can still do hot pot.
Lucy Dearlove 17:10
Yeah, and doing it in your own way.
Melanie Xu 17:11
Yeah, but it felt quite natural. I think it felt quite like oh, we could do hot pot. Yeah, that's really easy.
Lucy Dearlove 17:17
The rice cooker is so clever!
Melanie Xu 17:18
Yeah, so like if you don't have a....in general, I'd say the one like slightly tricky thing about doing hot pot at home is that like portable stove, right? So like if you don't have a camping stove already or we haven't like you don't have one for like hot pot,
Lucy Dearlove 17:32
Got one of those little induction plug ins
Melanie Xu 17:33
Yeah, like it can be a bit of a pain but if you've got a rice cooker, yeah, you can use it. And like to be honest, I imagine you can probably use like a slow cooker or whatever and yeah, just need something that's like hot with a pot! I didn't do that on purpose I swear!
Lucy Dearlove 17:51
Fundamentally, that's all you need!
Melanie Xu 17:52
That's actually all you need. But rice cooker on its warm function or like even on its cook function if you can do it with the lid open, you can just like turn it on and off as you need it.
Lucy Dearlove 18:04
Yeah, I've got...I don't have a rice cooker but I've got an Instant Pot and you could definitely do it in that because it's got like a saute function
Melanie Xu 18:12
oh yeah just just put that on
Lucy Dearlove 18:13
It is massive though!
Melanie Xu 18:16
No such thing as too much hot either though. So like that is absolutely fine.
Lucy Dearlove 18:19
The limit does not exist
Melanie Xu 18:20
exactly exactly. And like, the larger the pot, the better quite frankly. Yeah, so it's basically just chopping and washing, washing and chopping. Nothing very complicated going on. Okay, there's the meaty stuff that needs to go in...do the lotus root...need to do the tofu and the spam. Do you want to get the spam out?
Andrew 18:52
Yeah, do you want me to pop the spam?
Melanie Xu 18:53
Yeah, your job to be getting the spam out.
Lucy Dearlove 18:56
Spam duty.
Melanie Xu 18:58
We have very different methods...
Lucy Dearlove 19:00
Oh yeah?
Melanie Xu 19:00
With spam. As in like just, oh- getting out of the can.
Lucy Dearlove 19:03
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew 19:05
Apologies!
Melanie Xu 19:06
Andrew's a brute force [Bang Bang Bang]
Lucy Dearlove 19:13
So that's not your preferred method?
Melanie Xu 19:15
No, but like it is much faster and more effective.
Lucy Dearlove 19:19
Oh, there we go. Yeah, it's out.
Melanie Xu 19:22
I like to do the like squeeze and coax. But I will fully, readily admit that Andrew's method is much faster. Oh, yeah, you can be a garlic crusher duty because that does need to be quite a lot. [Chopping sounds]
Lucy Dearlove 19:52
It's so beautiful.
Melanie Xu 19:54
I love it, it's so nice. And then what is there? Prawns? Which I think we could just put straight in. And the fish? Fish cake I'll do on a chopping board. This is very beautiful spam, Andrew.
Lucy Dearlove 20:23
Oh look at it! It's like when you found slices of avocado
Melanie Xu 20:28
Yeah, very lovely. That's for guests only, I don't think we're usually like that.
Lucy Dearlove 20:34
That's the special spam.
Melanie Xu 20:35
Yeah.
Lucy Dearlove 20:37
Oh what's that? That's fish cake?
Melanie Xu 20:39
Yeah, fish cake, and some fish ballls which I would say are only very subtly different in flavour...as in the types that I bought, which I thought they were going to be more different and they weren't.
Lucy Dearlove 20:56
They look different on the plate.
Melanie Xu 20:59
I mean they're all different shapes and that does make a difference! because thei flavour profiles are quite similar. Need to chop some coriander. And then make the soup borther....then I think maybe we're ready to eat. I think that like restaurants must feel like I feel it when I do it for dinner. Just like this is great. This is such a good con! Like everyone's like, Oh my God, this looks amazing. It's so exciting to see everything on the table. I'm like, I've literally not cooked anything. I made a stock. That's it! Get going.
Lucy Dearlove 21:42
I guess you could...you're the hot pot curator. Yeah, you've selected the best possible ingredients.
Melanie Xu 21:50
Yeah, that's it.
Lucy Dearlove 21:54
That is great, though. Because like, I've been sort of been thinking about this a lot recently. And especially because since being obsessed with kitchens, like the idea of how the most impressive...like in the...I feel like you know, like British food culture, the most impressive dinner party like in the sort of heyday of dinner parties, which I guess like the 70s, 80s, 90s would be you know, three courses which would basically require the...whoever was cooking to be essentially chained to the stove for the entire...you know, if you're like doing, I dunno, a Crepe Suzette or something, yeah, you gotta be, gotta be there. Which kind of undermines the whole point of having people around for dinner, which is to see them. You know, they're not....they would go to a restaurant if they really wanted a good meal. Like, they're there to see you. And it just seems really ridiculous.
Melanie Xu 22:39
That's true. I agree.
Lucy Dearlove 22:40
So hot pot is the ideal.
Melanie Xu 22:42
Yeah.
Lucy Dearlove 22:43
Everybody wins!
Melanie Xu 22:43
Everybody should do hot pot.... dinner parties should just be hot pot for, for everybody, forever.
Lucy Dearlove 22:49
Because I didn't realize the bases were so kind of widely avail...I guess that I just never really thought about it. I just assumed everyone eating hot pot at home was like making their own bases. And I was like, I just don't know if I can do that. That just seems really intense. You know, I've made stock and yeah, soup brother.. But like, that's a lot. But now I was like, I was like, I can do hot pot at home.
Melanie Xu 23:08
You can do hot pot at home, it's so easy. I think. I think certainly, like, buying bases has become easier in like, recent years, I think for sort of, like the last three, four years or something. Like it's been a lot easier. And there's been like, way more variety. And there's always been something...there's always been, like, certain types of like, bases that you can add, but I think kind of like, you know, like a Ma La sort of, like, quite authentic, I say in inverted commas, but you know, like, sort of has all the spices and the peppercorns and stuff in like, looks quite fancy.
Lucy Dearlove 23:40
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 23:40
That's quite a sort of, like, recent thing that's like, made it over here.
Lucy Dearlove 23:43
Okay, yeah.
Melanie Xu 23:44
Like normally, that's something that I would have, like brought back from China.
Lucy Dearlove 23:47
Okay.
Melanie Xu 23:48
You know, but kind of, I think the last sort of, like, few years, they've been quite, like, widely available. And I think like, you know, Haidilao and stuff like that. That's kind of like...their kind of soup bases are kind of like everywhere as well. Like, they contributed a lot to that being available. And like just chains, I guess, like more hot pot chains making it over into sort of like more Western cultures. I feel like...cuz you see a lot of like Little Lamb kind of stuff as well.
Lucy Dearlove 24:16
Okay. Okay.
Melanie Xu 24:18
I think that's kind of, like, been part of it. But there's lots of like, other like hot pot bases that you can do which are really easy to make home...like to be honest, you could just do like a simple chicken stock. Like sometimes at home, like I think when I was like, much younger in Newcastle, like that's what we would do sometimes as well. Like, you know, I've talked about the Ma La only but that was like very much like if we go out there's definitely a spicy base but sometimes like at home, just like an easy meal. And actually, hilariously, my parents used to do it in the very early days in a fondue pot that they'd like bought at like TK Maxx or something. I remember this really like cute little thing that we had.
Lucy Dearlove 24:55
But that's perfect!
Melanie Xu 24:56
Exactly, and that's what we used to use for it. But I think a lot of the time then as well, it would sort of be like if it was an easy sort of like quick hot pot dinner, it would just be like a good like chicken stock or a good like master broth kind of thing that they'd made. And you know, you'd spice it up with stuff like chili oil or whatever in terms of different sauce. So it kind of like....doesn't always need to be like really complicated and like you know, bells and whistles and stuff. Yeah, I think I very much back myself into a corner because what I want is spicy complicated.
Lucy Dearlove 25:24
Yeah, yeah.
Melanie Xu 25:26
That's the one that I'm always like....I want it. And yeah, whenever I like make it myself, it's never quite as good. And you can get it out of a packet so I just get it out of a packet!
Lucy Dearlove 25:34
What's the point?!
Melanie Xu 25:36
They normally say like one block of these to a pot but I probably do like half and I feel like that's on the spicy side.
Lucy Dearlove 25:45
So do you have to melt it first
Melanie Xu 25:47
I quite like to fry it off a little bit and I think that that is like what's suggested but also if you just dumped it straight in I really don't think it would be a problem. But these are...these blocks are...so I think mostly like one animal fat of one way or the other. Yeah, it's quite good to kind of like melt it off a bit and fry it, and get the spices going, I suppose. But I think they probably do that already. Yeah, pre process. So I'm gonna put out some separate meaty chopsticks.
Andrew 26:23
I got spares as well.
Melanie Xu 26:23
Okay, good. Yeah, but, you know, it's all going in like boiling broth. I feel like if you just like shove 'em in for a sensible amount of time....it's fine. But you know, if you're that way inclined, you can also use a...use a separate set of chopsticks.
Lucy Dearlove 26:42
Look at it!
Melanie Xu 26:45
Yeah, so I normally add stock if I've got it. But I think to be honest, if you just had water that is actually also fine...like...
Lucy Dearlove 26:57
There's enough flavour in the base.
Melanie Xu 26:59
Yeah, it's kind of like you know, I think it should be like a relaxed affair. Like what's nice about it is that it's like relatively gentle prep, so I don't think there's any need to like stress yourself out being like, I've got to make stock for it or whatever. So if there's only water you can do it. It's fine. I won't judge you!
Lucy Dearlove 27:21
No, hot pot etiquette here.
Melanie Xu 27:22
Absolutely none! As ever. So just wait for that to come to the boil. And then I think that's it! Variety is key.
Lucy Dearlove 27:34
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 27:34
I think having a big spread of things and I think kind of like that's why the sort of like hot pot buffet set up works so well right because there's like so much stuff and you can kind of like go and get a little bit of everything that you want. And yeah, I think it's just you it's quite hard to get that full spread. I guess every now and then...everyone just wants some hot pot and maybe you can't round up enough people like while the urge is hitting.
Lucy Dearlove 27:57
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 27:57
It does like make me think of....like this was like years ago but there was like a...can't remember what I was called but they opened up like a sort of like singular person hot pot place in like Chinatown. And it was like, quite, I guess unusually for the time. Maybe? It was like reviewed in quite a lot of the like, big newspapers. Like the Guardian did it. Like yeah, I'm sure like Jay Rayner went and like the usual lot kind of went and reviewed it. And I really can't remember the specifics of, like the reviews anymore. Yeah. But like my overriding memory was like, no one like really rated it. But mostly because all their articles were like, I don't understand how to eat hot pot, therefore I didn't enjoy eating hot pot.
Lucy Dearlove 28:43
I mean, that sounds like a classic, a classic broadsheet food reviewer response.
Melanie Xu 28:47
Yeah. I was just like, at the time I was...I remember reading them and being like, but surely like,
Lucy Dearlove 28:52
Would you not have just asked one person to go with you? I don't know. Like...
Melanie Xu 28:57
I was just like isn't it your job to like, figure out how to eat this like first, like, literally so that you can enjoy the food on the basis...of it?
Lucy Dearlove 29:04
You would think so...it's like someone going to review a play and being like, I actually don't really know anything about theatre.
Melanie Xu 29:11
Yeah, I didn't know that there were intermissions. I felt like it really ruined the vibe and the flow for me...really bad.
Lucy Dearlove 29:15
It really, like interrupts, like, the narrative for me.
Melanie Xu 29:19
Yeah. So that was...and I think like, partly that was just sort of like, you know, maybe like, not great reviews, as in like, not great journalism if I'm allowed to say that. Maybe I shouldn't say that....pretentious. But also I think part of that was because it's singular, one person hot pot, right? Like if you're there and it's like a group thing they would have had to have to have turned up with like a few people.
Lucy Dearlove 29:44
That's true.
Melanie Xu 29:45
You would have like, maybe had to have had someone who understood what was going on a little bit more....like I guess it's just like more convivial and it's like more social and it makes it a bit more fun. I did think it being like a single person thing and then they were all...mostly they're complaining that they didn't understand how to do this thing. And it felt like loads of fuss to do it for themselves and that sort of thing. Yeah, like, I think it suffered being...a one person hot pot.
Lucy Dearlove 30:09
Yeah.
Melanie Xu 30:09
Mostly it was just people be like, I don't understand what to do with like the utensils or how to like, do stuff. And I was just like...but you just cook the food. It's interesting though, because I do feel like...I do feel like the vibe has maybe changed in some....maybe...I mean G*les C*ren and still exists and has a job. So like, maybe I'm being hasty here. But I feel like Jay Reyner probably wouldn't write that review now. Yeah, I like to think it wouldn't happen now. And I think more people are aware of hot pot than they were....like, actually it's really funny that we're doing this now because, like, just in the last like, couple of weeks, or maybe it's because like hot pot's on the mind, and I'm noticing...
Lucy Dearlove 30:46
Yeah, what is it? Synchronicity.
Melanie Xu 30:49
it's so strange. But like lots of people on like Instagram or whatever are like suddenly having hot pot and they're not like people who I would like necessarily have assumed would have hot pot regularly. I mean, it's not like...any anyone can have hot pot. I don't mean it like that. I mean, yeah, people who've not had hot pot before are like posting pictures of going to hot pot. And I'm like, Oh, great. I feel like yeah, Jay Rayner, or, whoever, whoever, like did the various reviews probably couldn't even, like, claim that level of sort of ignorance anymore. Like, I think you're probably like, you couldn't write an article about being like, I don't know how to eat this anymore. Because it's just kind of like, more in the public consciousness. Right? Or at least in a London food scene consciousness. Maybe that's the right way of describing it. But like, yeah, I'd be shocked if sort of someone in one of the like, big newspapers now it was, was just like, I literally don't understand how this works. And I'm like, Really, you don't understand a boiling pot of like, yeah, soup, and then you put something in it. Like it's basically fondue!.
Lucy Dearlove 31:55
Let me explain it to you in terms you understand!
Melanie Xu 31:57
You all know how to do fondue!
Lucy Dearlove 31:58
Yeah, you don't seem to have any trouble with those little forks!
Melanie Xu 32:06
What I love when you go to a hot pot restaurant is they'll often just have like giant bowls full of crushed garlic just like...huge mounds and it's just really glorious.
Lucy Dearlove 32:16
Yeah. Makes you really appreciate the effort that's gone into that as well.
Melanie Xu 32:24
They've probably didn't even use a crusher, to be honest.
Lucy Dearlove 32:26
Yeah, just chopped it.
Melanie Xu 32:29
Much finer knife skills than I've got.
Lucy Dearlove 32:36
Yeah, I felt quite overwhelmed by the sauces at Haidilao.
Melanie Xu 32:40
Yeah...
Lucy Dearlove 32:40
I was trying to like work it....You know, cos they give you recipes, but I was like, well...
Melanie Xu 32:44
People do really complicated things. And I've never been a complicated sauce person. So...
Lucy Dearlove 32:49
That's good to know.
Melanie Xu 32:50
Always just like ...
Lucy Dearlove 32:51
Keep it simple.
Melanie Xu 32:52
Yeah, garlic, sesame oil, salt. And coriander if you want it. I'm pretty happy with that.
Lucy Dearlove 33:02
Yeah, there was some sort of like viral Tik Tok hot pot sauce. I kept seeing it. I can't remember what was in it now. Everyone was, everyone was making it...
Melanie Xu 33:11
It was like, Oh my God, you have to have this...
Lucy Dearlove 33:13
You have to try this hot pot sauce!
Melanie Xu 33:20
Oh, I guess that's the other thing is like post hot pot. I feel like if you've done it properly, you will smell of garlic for like several days. Great! That's the other thing I should mention. It is good though. This is how you want the table to look I think. This is what I consider to be a good amount! This is the full table now. With the broth on. So I would...yeah, just start shoving a few things in..particularly I'll put some lotus root in and the bamboo shoots because they take longer. Kind of normally the way we do is we chuck a whole load of stuff in and you...like everything was like, you know different lengths of time to cook so we kind of like fish stuff out when it's ready? But you wait for like a boil to come back. At least normally, is what we do. I guess it's like, it's one of those meals where I think I felt I felt very at home. I felt very...to be honest, like Chinese. I felt very much like I was from like Chongqing like finally. So my Chinese is like, horrible. You know, my family or my friends back there always make fun of my accent...probably mispronouncing a whole bunch of things here now, but like when we're just there and we're like eating everyone's always like, oh my god, I can't believe you can eat the spicy broth and like my parents would be like, yeah, she's fine. You know, it's so funny. She's only like six but she loves it. She's totally fine with it. I'd be like yeah, I'm totally fine with it and great and you feel so like included and like you know, sort of like...I feel like yes we're finally peers, we're eating hot pot. You know what I mean?
Lucy Dearlove 34:18
Thank you to Mel and Andrew for their hot pot hospitality! I've never craved something so much when editing, and i haven't done my Instant Pot Hot Pot yet but I'm going to. I'll report back. Thanks so much for listening to this episode! I'd love to hear from you....tell me your stories about hot pot. What's your favourite sauce? How do you like to eat it? What goes in first? What's your hot pot etiquette. You can find Lecker on Twitter, Instagram and now TikTok, which is fun. I'm having a great time there! If you’re in a position to do so, I'd really appreciate your support on Lecker, whether that's leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, telling a friend about it, or buying some merch, you can find links to that in the show notes, or if you're in a position to donate financially, either one off or as a monthly patreon, I'd be hugely grateful and it just means I can devote a bit extra time every month to making Lecker. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions. I'll be back next month with another episode.