Jintian Xiabu le me?

Hotpot is legendary. It is normally a meal consisting of raw meats and veggies which you dunk into a pot of boiling water and oil. Honestly, though, I hesitate to even define it as that, since many regions of China have their own versions of hotpot. I’ll delve into the plethora of hotpot varieties over the course of this blog but for now I want to start with the best basic hotpot chain in China, 呷哺呷哺 (Xiabu Xiabu).

It is the closest thing to fast food hotpot you could find, with a winding bar of individual hotpots, heating up to a boil on their individual hot plates. There is one in almost every major Chinese mall. At lunch time during the work week, the high chairs are filled with young people on their lunch breaks, and sometimes in the evening you will even see a young couple out for dinner in their PJs. True story.

On the menu they have the usual hotpot meats, but I would recommend the lamb. It is thinly sliced and cooks incredibly quickly. Xiabu has also been known to have little hotpot dumplings, although not every store carries them. If you can find the 火锅饺, though, they are amazing.

Balla picks: 1 plate of half potato and half sweet potato, 1 plate of lotus roots, 1 order of noodles, one plate of greens. Additional picks might include tofu skin, meatballs, needle mushrooms, and bailuobuo.

Once you order the combination of foods you want to cook, you have to pick what kind of boiling broth you want to cook your food in. There are 3 options at Xiabu, 清汤 (qingtang, a clear broth with light seasoning), 麻辣 (mala,
numbingly spicy), and a curry based broth (which I confess I have never actually tried). I go for the spicy one!

The final step is to prepare your sauce for dipping once your food comes out of the pot! The standard is a sesame paste (芝麻酱), which is given to you in a plastic packet that you have to squeeze into a bowl yourself. Weird but worth it. The sauce makes the meal. If you like cilantro, it is typical to be given a bowl of it to add to your sauce.

Oh and listen up for Xiabu’s spinoff version of the old “Numa Numa song” which is perpetually playing in restaurants across China!

Let the boiling, dunking, and eating begin!