[andygcook]

My partner loves hot pot, so I bought her a home hot pot kit for Christmas last year. At first she didn’t want to use it at all which was disappointing, but then it become a huge hit when all the restaurants closed down for Covid. Home hot pot has now turned into our fun date night tradition on Friday’s where we eat together for a few hours while talking.

Here’s our list of ingredients we like if anyone is curious. Would love to hear other recommendations to try too:

King oyster mushrooms, Shitaki mushrooms, Tofu skin dried, Frozen bean curd rolls frozen, Fried tofu, Bean curd nuggets, Choripdong Oriental Style Noodles, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Corn on cob, Lotus root, Beef (thin sliced), Shrimp

Part of the fun is plating the ingredients before eating and working on our presentation skills together. It’s really rewarding when we can make it look like they do at the restaurant.

After some trial and error, we also recommend the Little Lamb broths. They comes in different spice levels and taste just like the restaurant. All you need to do is add six cups of water: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Sheep-Soup-Base-235-Grams/dp/B...

FYI that’s not an affiliate link, I just like hot pot and wanted to share.

(Edit - formatting)

[pki-ask]

You can also try adding fish balls (can find at Asian supermarkets). Another is Napa cabbage - it sounds quite plain but is surprisingly good in a hot pot. Also try getting a fish based bbq sauce (it’s a Taiwanese brand), and mixing that with sesame oil, soy sauce, chili oil, ginger/green onions/cilantro/garlic, finely chopped. For noodles, I would use udon, hands down. Lastly, adding steamed rice to the broth at the end with beaten egg to make a congee is excellent.

[panda88888]

Do you mean this one? This is one of my favorite sauce.

https://www.99ranch.com/zh-hant/shop/condiments_and_spices/s...

[andygcook]

We bought some fish balls, but they weren’t great. Need to experiment with others or better yet, make our own.

[bobbiechen]

I'm also a big fan of doing hot pot at home. It's a nice social thing to do since you can't really rush it.

Besides beef, thinly sliced lamb and pork are also great. I recommend getting a manual frozen meat slicer like https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Po3rfCn6L.... It pays for itself very quickly since you can just buy any meat, including nicer cuts, at the bulk price - I think mine literally paid for itself in the first session.

[contingencies]

Coriander / potato and other tubers / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houttuynia_cordata#Zhe'ergen / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goji / rice noodles / wood-ear mushrooms / tomato / xiaogua (小瓜; similar to zucchini) / beansprouts / carrot / spring onion / spinach / cabbage / garlic.

[andygcook]

Thanks for the recommendations. Will check them out. Garlic is definitely happening during the next hot pot session.

[novia]

I recommend mochi if you can find it. The kind that's rectangular.

https://expatsguide.jp/articles/culture/mochi-cooking/

[ketzo]

Are lotus roots the ones that come as very flat circles? Was introduced to them the first time I ever had hot pot -- SO good.

[taejo]

Yeah, with discs with holes in them.

[carlmr]

>After some trial and error, we also recommend the Little Lamb broths. They comes in different spice levels and taste just like the restaurant.

Little (fat) sheep is in fact one of the biggest Chinese hot pot chains. It might be THE broth from the restaurant.