The History of Chongqing Hot Pot

Chongqing hot pot, also named beef tripe hotpot

and spicy hot pot, is originated from dock man's coarse diet behavior in Jialing river bank, Chongqing, in Qing dynasty. Its main ingredients are beef tripe, pig gullet, duck gut and duck blood. As a dish of Chongqing people, it owns the features of heavy taste, spicy flavor, red peppers seasoner. Afterwards, it developed to be sold in itinerant booth.

It is said that 20-30's in last century, the brothers Ma opened a first hot pot restaurant characterized by beef tripe in Chongqing. In the period of Daoguang, estimated, beef tripe jot pot was list in Chongqing's feast. In the anti-Japanese war time, hot pot catering had made great improvement that hot pot restaurants were spread over streets and alleys. And that was the starting point of modern Chongqing hot pot.

The truly authentic beef tripe hot pot, according to the statement of senior citizens in Chongqing, appeared in about the 15^th year of Republican period, and originated in Zaifang Street, a place bellowed Yangtze River Bridge instead of Jiangbei. Most beef chapmen at that time carried cows from Sichuan, stayed overnight in Chongqing, and slaughtered cows in Zaifang Street. So Brothers Ma brought mass unsold tripe and blood at low cost, mainly with which they established a spicy hot pot restaurant imitating the folk cooking way.

Those are the stories about how beef tripe hot pot named and developed, reputedly. A restaurant specialized in making authentic beef tripe hot pot did not exist until the anti-Japanese war time came. It had won great reputation among customers for its fresh and tender tripe and its pleasant taste surpassing others.

Features of Chongqing Hot Pot

1.       A rich variety of dishes

Traditional trip hot pot is mainly cooked with beef tripe. The most authentic tripe hot pot is composed of liver, heart, tongue, beef fillet from a cow and other vegetable like garlic, green onion, and pea.

Nowadays, ingredient of hot pot has increased to hundreds of types, vast in variety, almost covered with all edible food one could imagine, such as poultry, aquatic product, seafood, venison, purtenance. And based on tripe hot pot, various hot pot themes have been invented, like light soup, two flavors, beer duck, dog meat, beef slice, and spicy chicken. Not to mention western hot pot made for foreign.

As traditional hot pot is too greasy and spicy, not conforming to modern diet concept of health and nutrition, people decrease spicy and greasy ingredient to make it taste healthier.

2.       Unique sauce

Chongqing hot pot is a typical dish to reveal numb, spicy, and hot in Chuan dish uniqueness.

Authentic tripe hot pot is known for its heavy taste, in which the soup is made by bean halves, soya bean, tallow, red pepper. The cooking way is to melt the tallow in firing pot, add beans after chipped. When it turns red and liquid, fry red peppers at high power, and add beef soup, smashed soya bean, crystal sugar, salt and ginger.

In recent years, flavors like beer, seafood, pickled cabbage have been invented. Different types of hot pots match different soup and seasoners with category up to 30. In addition, it is healthier and more delicious to eat boiled food with various condiment dishes concocted by sesame oil, oyster sauce, rape oil, soup, MSG, garlic, and egg white.

3.       Unconstrained in eating

Chongqing hot pot is outstanding from others in terms of eating way.

Historical hot pot restaurant in old time was equipped with large customized tables and chairs. Customers inside toasted and ate, gazing at the hot pot on lower tables. Especially in summer, people sat alongside the pot sweated to their clothes wetted, and they couldn’t help taking off their coat when eating enthusiastically. The way Chongqing people act in eating hot pot with unconstraint and vigor is beyond comparison in China, which reflects the diet culture of Bayu, including their bold and unconstraint character.

Today, Chongqing hot pot has been modernized that its soup has been varied from traditional soup to two flavors, seafood, herb and vinegar-pepper; cow, goat, dag, fish head, chicken and duck have been add to its main ingredients. And light oil, sesame oil, garlic oil, and white egg to sauce category. Even improvement in hot pot equipment and fuels. You don’t get the fun in eating Chongqing hot pot until you try in person. 

Hong Kong-Style Hot Pot

Hong Kong style hot pot can be divided into 3 types, which is listed bellow.

Da bianlu (Cantonese) is a general term for Hong Kong-style hot pot, generally with light soup or satay soup as soup base, or two flavor in half at the same time. People put the food to boil until it done, and eat with soy. Hong Kong style hot pot is characterized by its various food, such as slice beef, grass crap, eel, geoduck, oyster, fish mince, shrimp mince, and salmon.

Wined chicken hot pot: it is popular for people in Hong Kong and Guangdong province to put a chicken or a half with yellow rice wine, medlar, and other Chinese herb as soup base.

  Porridge hot pot: originated in Shunde, Guangdong, this kind of hot pot, instead of soup, uses porridge as base to boil food.

Pork bone stew pot: originated in Macao, but reformed after spreading to Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The edible method of pork bone hot pot in Shenzhen is to eat the meat alongside the bone and absorb the marrow. While the method in Hong Kong, similar to that of Macao, pay attention to soup base and ingredient, and develop it to hot pot. Its creamy soup base is made by pork bone and other ingredients, adding white pepper and salt.

Scholars In Modern Times Have Affection for Hot Pot

Some of the scholars in modern times showed special affection for hot pot either. 
Take Hushi who loved hot pot in his hometown, Huizhou, as an example. Hushi in his life, has traveled home and aboard, and went company with Huizhou hot pot everywhere he went. He usually asked his wife to cook elaborate Huizhou hot pot to entertain guest when invited them home for meals. the time when he was appointed as principal in Beijing University, he once treat Liang Qiushi with Huizhou hot pot, in which food were placed in 3 layer: layers of chicken, duck and meat. The  hot pot is so delicious that Hushi named it Yipin Guo, meaning the hot pot is of first level without equal. As Liang Shiqiu, a famous litterateur written on his memoirs essay about Hushi that he had left great impression on Huizhou hot pot and how Hushi felt about it. 
Xietian, a well-known film director became addicted to hot pot when he stayed in Chongqing in his youth, and was regarded as a great fan of hot pot.

Anecdotes about Hot Pot in Ancient Time

Some of the ancient emperors were really into hot pot.

The first example is Hu Bilei in Yuan dynasty.One day in winter, when his army was about to marching, he suddenly hungered for mutton. With few cooking material, his smart cook suddenly came up with a good idea that cut the mutton into slices to boil in water pot added green onion and sauce. Surprisingly, Hu Bilei was full of praise for the dish, and even after he ruled the country, he didn’t forget the dish and named it mutton shabu.

In Ming Dynasty, it's said that once his father took Yang Shen, a Ming dynasty’s litterateur at his childhood to a wine feast in imperial garden held by Emperor Hongzhi. Seeing the mutton hot pot with charcoal burning, Emperor Hongzhi made a first line about the scene, and asked his officials to finish the next. Instantly, the officials stared at each other awkwardly. At that moment, Yang Shen made the second line and whispered to his father. The emperor was so pleased when Yang’s father repeated to him the second line and rewarded yang’s father a glass of wine.

Qian Long Emperor in Qing dynasty also had preference to hot pot. He has been to southern China many times, where he must ate hot pot every time he stayed. According to history record, he held a thousand elderly feast in the first year of Jiaqin period, with 1550 hot pot and 5000 people in total, which was said to be the biggest feast of hot pot.

Spicy Sichun Hot Pot--offer you a warm winter

Ingredient: 3 teaspoon Sichuan board bean paste, 100g butter, 100g salad oil, 100g dried pepper,

50g Chinese red pepper,3 teaspoon sugar, 15g rock candy, 1 piece of ginger, 3 petals of garlic, 2 green onion, 2teaspoon white spirit, 1 can bone soup, 1 piece orange peel, 2 Amomum tsaoko, 15g fennel, 3 anise, 1 cinnamon, 3 Myra,  1 teaspoon mono sodium, 2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 ground pepper powder, 2 soup spoon light soy sauce

Cooking method:

1. Add salad oil to the pot to heat and add peppers to fry until they smells good. Pour them out for later use. Melt the sugar in the pot and then add garlic, ginger and green onion.

2. When the garlic, ginger and onion turn light yellow, add all the condiment to fry together. Pour butter, white spirit, and soy sauce to mix up and fry.

3. Finally pour the whole bone soup and add rock candy to the pot, matching with the pepper fried before,, the hot pot soup base is done.