Eat hot pot
See the human heart
Chinese love to eat hot pot, this is a fact known all over the world.
In Guangdong and Hong Kong, eating hot pot is called "side stove", to paraphrase a popular advertising slogan in a shopping mall in Hong Kong many years ago, you can play the side stove when you are happy, and you want to play the side stove when you are unhappy, Hong Kong people just like to play the side stove.
I also like to eat hot pot, and I like to find hot pot restaurants all over the world to eat.
Last year, I went to Dublin on a business trip, and I couldn't help but ask local colleagues where to eat hot pot, and then dragged a few colleagues to a hot pot restaurant on the street of Dublin's "Chinatown" to eat hot pot.
I've forgotten what I had that night, except that it seemed to be the happiest meal I've had in Dublin.
Copper pans in Dublin
To talk about the origin of hot pot, a friend of mine will definitely talk to you about the mighty history of Genghis Khan, the "generation of Tianjiao".
The origin of hot pot is actually difficult to verify, and there have been many different versions circulating in the market, one of which is that Genghis Khan may be one of the inventors of hot pot.
As we all know, Mongolia has been rich in fat sheep since ancient times, as a nomadic people, Genghis Khan and his subordinates for convenience, wherever they go, where they eat, where there are sheep, they will immediately kill and put them directly into piping hot water while fresh.
Genghis Khan and others accidentally found that they had a very delicious mutton soup to drink, and then added vegetables and other different ingredients, and the eating habits of hot pot began to gradually form.
In northern China, eating hot pot is necessary to have mutton, so eating hot pot in the north is actually called "shabu mutton", the most famous "shabu mutton" includes "Donglai Shun" operated by many chain stores in Beijing today.
I have eaten hot pot in Ulaanbaatar a few times, and there is more than one kind of mutton here, basically different parts of the sheep will be used to eat hot pot. Mongolian steppe sheep are very delicious to use shabu mutton, I laughed with local friends that I have eaten shabu mutton in Mongolia, I am afraid that if I go to eat mutton hot pot elsewhere, I will become very picky.
Mongolian hot pot
Another time I went to Kazakhstan on a business trip and couldn't help but ask local friends where to eat hot pot, I spoke English "hot pot".
The other party was a Kazakh local, but he didn't understand it at first, then took out his mobile phone and searched, and finally figured out what I said by "hot pot", so he drove me to a so-called "hot pot restaurant". When you enter the store, it feels more like a skewer specialty store.
It turns out that hot pot restaurants in Kazakhstan are like this, meat and vegetables are all skewed in advance, meat dishes are also the same price, the boss sees how many skewers you take at the checkout, so that you know how much money in total.
Singaporeans also love to eat hot pot. The founder of Haidilao immigrated to Singapore after Daniel Zhang early years of development and successfully brought Haidilao to Singapore, and for a while, Haidilao almost became synonymous with hot pot in Singapore.
Of course, Singapore also has its own original collagen "beauty pot", it is said that drinking collagen-rich soup is good for the skin, many Singaporean girls like to go to eat "beauty pot" together.
Later, Singapore's "Meizi Pot" opened a branch in Taipei City, and at the beginning of its opening, it also caused everyone to queue up for days to eat hot pot.
Meizi pot
However, the world's favorite hot pot is probably Chinese.
Chengdu, Chongqing and other southwestern regions of the hot pot are famous all over the world, in contrast, the hot pot in the south is not as famous, but it also has its unique taste.
For example, Taipei.
Over the years, I have eaten almost all the big and small hot pot restaurants in Taipei, from the "Temple of Harmony", which Andy Lau and Kwok Fucheng loved to patronize, to the "No Old Pot", where tofu and duck blood can always be added for free, "Dingwang", which has opened branches in Hong Kong, the horse spicy hot pot under the banner of "eating enough", and the "orange" known as Hermes in the hot pot industry...
Orange
Friends who like spicy food will definitely not miss the "old Sichuan" that can only be eaten in Taipei. In short, every time I go to Taipei, even if I eat hot pot every night for a week, I will not be dissatisfied.
Sichuanese Cuisine Restaurant
In fact, my favorite Taipei hot pot restaurant is not those chain stores, but the kind of local restaurants that my friends took me to. There are only four or five tables as soon as you enter, and the owner will come over to toast you when he has time while helping you prepare the ingredients.
Recently, I went to Taipei and a few good friends found a small shop they liked to eat hot pot, and asked for a few bottles of Taiwanese beer, which served best with hot pot.
Before leaving, the owner of the hot pot restaurant suddenly came to give me a small box containing six glasses with the logo of Taiwan beer. The boss said that the glass was given by the merchant promotion, although it is not valuable, but today we have the opportunity to eat hot pot together, which is the value of life. Send you a cup and hope you remember all the good things you have in Taipei.
The boss said a few words, sincerely, warmed my heart. It turns out that we sometimes eat not just hot pot, but a feeling. With who eats and where to eat, this is as important as the ingredients used in the hot pot.
"Like You" stills
Why do I like to eat hot pot? I think that the matter of having a side stove is indeed not only about eating, eating hot pot has several advantages.
First, the hot pot ingredients are very rich, beef, sheep, chicken and pork are optional, beef is also divided into Australian or Japanese Wagyu, different beef pot times are different, it can be seen that there are also university questions to eat hot pot.
Guangdong and Hong Kong side stove also like to choose a lot of seafood, fish and shrimp are basic, if you have money, buy a few more abalone to put in the pot, friends are also very faced, can also say that their life is quite good.
Secondly, a hot pot can be eaten for a long time, everyone eats, chats, eats, clothes, happy, unhappy, work, society, life. Suddenly, the hot pot brought you and me closer. After a hot pot meal, new friends become old friends, and old friends become confidant friends.
Of course, taking myself as an example, not just pulling a few people to eat hot pot, friends who can sit down and eat hot pot together should at least be considered talkative.
If it's just for business entertainment, we can go to Western food, you order a steak, I order a steak, each eats its own, the courtesy is exchanged, and it sounds dignified.
A still from "Infernal Affairs"
Eat hot pot, that's really treating you as a friend. Everyone eats hot pot and sees people's hearts.
In the past, many Hong Kong films will have such a storyline, a big guy finishes work, and then calls a group of little brothers to run to a familiar roadside stall to eat hot pot, the big guy sits at the main table, and the most desperate brothers sit next to him, and then other little brothers sit around other tables, the scene is very magnificent.
I think maybe only eating hot pot has such an aura.
Remember that the next time a friend from Guangdong and Hong Kong asks you to eat hot pot, it may also be a manifestation of people treating you as a real friend. We like to play the side stove, in fact, because we love to make friends, love to talk about the world, people are doing, the sky is watching, there is a mouthful, there is life.
Wen / Chen Shu, born in Shanghai, moved to Hong Kong for more than 15 years, Weibo name "Shanghai and Hong Kong Xiaosheng", author of "In fact, no one is easy", "Foreign banks in China" and other books.