Kayiwa · · 2 min read
This is one of my oldest videos and still one of the most watched: hotpot at home, made with a packet of Haidilao soup base.
Haidilao is the Chinese hotpot chain that’s famous for its service. It also sells its soup bases in supermarkets and online, in a range of flavours, and they do most of the hard work for you.
What you need
- A Haidilao soup base. Spicy mala is the famous one, and there are milder ones like tomato and mushroom
- A pot you can keep simmering on the table, on a portable gas stove or an induction plate
- Thinly sliced beef or pork
- Tofu, mushrooms, leafy greens and anything else you like
- Noodles, to finish
- A dipping sauce. Sesame paste, garlic, coriander, spring onion and chilli oil is a good start
How it goes
Dissolve the base in water and bring it up to a boil. Then cook as you eat. Slow things go in first, fast things last.
Thin meat takes seconds. Fish balls and root vegetables take a few minutes. Greens need a quick dip and nothing more. Noodles go in at the end, once the broth has picked up everything else.
Is it as good as the restaurant?
No, and it doesn’t need to be. You lose the theatre, but you keep the best part, which is sitting around one pot for two hours with people you like. For the price of one restaurant visit, you can do it at home a few times.
The practical bit
- Soup base: Haidilao, from supermarkets or online
- Serves: as many people as you can fit around the pot
- Video: under 6 minutes
If you’d rather someone else did the cooking, here’s an all-you-can-eat hotpot in Yangzhou, and the China guide has more.