Huo Guo/ Hot Pot -part1-

Well, this post is sort of away from the normal posts. Ah well, As a food lover... yes FOOD lover, the only object tat i would dare to use the word "love" on, Huo Guo/ Hot pot/ Shabu shabu is one of my world favourite.
Well, before I went to china, My thought was that there is only one or two types of hot pot/ Huo guo. and normally the pot will be divided into two sides, like yin yang, the first one is plain with normal and the other one will be the spicy soup.

Ah, as you can guess already, it is truly a ground shocking and amazingly awesome experience to taste some of the weirdest and BEST-est (pardon the use of wrong grammar) ever.
Well, I do not attached my super favourite huo guo on this post.

It is Hong men yang rou, basically it is a goat meat Huo guo with a red sauce. It is the specialty of a small town where i used to live. Tried so much but that's the one I truly loved.

Not saying below's list is aint good , they are really close in terms of taste. But the variety of it will lure your salive to drolls!!!!
Enjoy........................ and Btw, pardon my han yu Ping yin, it sucks... yes i do realize.


A. Xiang Lak Xia Huo Guo., xiang = smells good ; Lak = spicy/hot; Xia = prawn/shrimps, so Its a Spicy smells good prawn Hot pot.

Second input is the same huo guo with better angle take. Well, its basically a stir fried prawn, potato/sweet potato (fried first before stir fried together with the prawn), dried chili, garlic, some ginger, herbs, chili pepper ( Ma lak, sechuan chili pepper), some spring onion and UNKNOWN ingredients.
Basically they will put the cooking first on the top of the hot pot stove, wait until you finish all the prawns and filling (warn you this is spicy and Oily).
After you're finished, they are going to pour the hot water in it until the wok is half full , where u then can light the fire and start your "huo guo" inside.
It cost about 60 Yuan /2 people to order as you like until you are very very exteremely full.
VERY GOOD, rating 8 out of 10. ; Cheap, spicy, amazingly surprising taste.
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The next one will be U mi zhou Huo guo.
This one is quite unique. Zhou is basically a congee or porridge.
It starts with a "milky" white water of soup based. The host describe to me that the milky feature is because they use the water from "washing the rice" to make it.
to better describe it, maybe some singaporean or malaysian would know the word "barley" drink. Its tasteless but it is really thick and good to absorb the taste of anything stewed on it.
Anyhow, normally we'd eat it with "seafood" side sauce specially made and whole chopped chicken is poured into the boiling hot pot.
Later, normally some vegetable and normal huo guo meats can be poured and enjoy at usual.
Well, what is special about it then?
It is at the end of it,... A thick congee/porridge (Zhou) is poured into the soup and while all the essence of the boiled hotpot we enjoyed before mixed to create a very very tasty and delicious porridge.
This Hot pot is actually one of the most expensive i had, for 5 people it cost about 150-200 Yuan/RMB.
I tried it 3x , Its awesomely delicious, and especially the congee.... its wordless... Heavenly!
Rating 9 out of 10
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The next one is less radical. Everyone who has ever enjoyed chinese huoguo should be familiar with this. the design of it is yin yang elements. But it is not called yin yang. To my surprised, it is called "yuen yang" huo guo.
It borrows the meaning from a kind of duck that always goes in a pair. I knew this when i went to the local zoo and this couple of animal which looks like a tiny duck swims here and there in pair. one is white and the other one is black.
Guys.. you're very lucky. I found the picture of them,when i took it at local zoo... and you can see them as below.
A symbol of yin yang , and this couple will stay together from kids until they die.

Cheap, and traditional.
Rating 7 out of 10.

Well
This next one is Sechuan style Huo guo. frankly, i had this one in malaysia at KL city. This will be a typical southern hotpot/huoguo.
The pot may seems to be a little unique. Instead of dividing the pot , half and half, it has a tiny spicy pot in the middle.
The soup based is very tasty itself which you can also easily find oyster mushroom being boiled together.
Rating. 7.5 out of 10
I tried "pork brain" filling in this huo guo.... its INTERESTING
Second last is Cu tier Huo guo/ Pork feet hot pot.
Yes,... If you're a fan of FAT FAT FAT,.. and a jelly like skin of pork feet... this is heavenly food.
There is nothing except an abundance of pork feet that is well stewed. The texture is tender and very juicy and Lots of skin... which is best...
It cost about 75 yuan / 3 people and we could not finish it either.
rating. 8 out of 10.



The last one is called "Beijing Huoguo". I have no idea nor i know the story behind it, but this huo guo is quite unique in terms of the design of the pot.
Unlike normal huoguo which you will have a metal pot and fire at the bottom of it, this huo guo is very tall.
Well, it basically looks like a "volcano" when the top long cover is taken off.
In the middle of the pot, a hot charcoal is placed and if the long cover is taken off, you can see the fire/ small flames coming out of its mouth.
Soup is basically tasteless, and filling is normal.
Intersting to try but in terms of taste, there is not much of a surprise.
One thing to note is that this huoguo normally accompanied with an abundance of sliced meat.
Rating. 7 out of 10