Hong Kong hot pot: Gourmet gimmicks we can't resist
Hot pot -- diners sit around a bubbling pot of communal broth and dunk raw pieces of food. Once the morsels are cooked they are slathered in various sauces and eaten immediately.
Hot pot is the Chinese socio-gastro activity of choice. It is a low-maintenance meal that feeds a lot of people.
Having to cook each piece of food individually before we can eat it turns hot pot into the slowest of slow food meals. Cooking time becomes bonding time.
Besides, in the winter the steaming cooking pot doubles as a room heater.
Where there's demand, there is crazy competition. Hong Kong hot pot restaurateurs try to out do each other with wackier combinations of broth-plus-meat each year.
This season, here are our picks of the most tricked-out, revved-up hot pots in Hong Kong.
Bubble egg white with salmon stock
As the heat is turned up under the pot, the foam swells, until the surface breaks and steam shoots through. It's all quite dramatic.
First, eat the egg whites while they are just cooked through. Then try the salmon soup with bits of salmon flesh in it.
This restaurant also has a very reputable selection of beef. Try cooking the beef slices in salmon soup -- the ultimate alternative surf n' turf.
Hotpot Restaurant, 1/F Diamond Court, 10-12 Hillwood Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, +852 2377 1315, 5 p.m.-2:30 a.m.
Tom yam kung cappuccino
The broth is a classic spicy tom yam kung with shrimps. The surface is a coconut milk foam with cocoa powder.
When the broth boils and combines with the foam, it results in a creamy tom yam kung replete with coconutiness.
Megan's Kitchen, 5/F Lucky Centre, 165-171 Wan Chai Road, +852 2866 8305, 6 p.m.-11 p.m. www.meganskitchen.com
Flaming seafood
Flaming seafood hot pot starts with a little bit of flambé.
The pot is served with some shrimps, shellfish and vegetables with lots of brandy and rum. This is set on fire. Lobster bisque is then poured into the pot and set to boil.
First taste the flambéed seafood, then sip some of the lobster bisque. It's an intense experience.
Only then should one start cooking the various other meats and seafoods like geoduck, beef and black truffle wontons.
King's Garden Restaurant, King's Hotel, 303 Jaffe Road, +852 2244 3355, 6 p.m.-1 a.m.
Charcoal hot pot
It would be difficult to find this shop if it weren't for friends' detailed directions.
Hidden down an alley, you'll have to search out the shop with your nose -- smell the charcoal and you're near.
The place is low on hygiene but high on rowdy hedonistic atmosphere. The boisterousness is unbeatable. Gleeful diners crowd around mini charcoal cookers, eating hot pot or barbecue.
Hung Fook Hot Pot 鴻福海鮮四季火鍋, inside an alley next to 86 Lok Shan Road, To Kwa Wan, +852 2365 0112, 6 p.m-4 a.m.
Black truffle
Order the large Italian black truffle soup for HK$298 at the Rich and Powerful Restaurant and get eight slices of black truffle with your hot pot.
The broth base itself has an intense black truffle flavor. It's all slightly suspicious as truffles are very heat sensitive, that's why they are usually shaved onto a dish at the last moment to get the best flavor and aroma.
If diners love the truffle aroma though, they will be too busy enjoying this hot pot to wonder about its origins.
Apart from truffles, lots of other types of fungi make up this shroom-lover's hot pot.
Rich and Powerful Restaurant, Charmhill Centre, 50 Hillwood Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, +852 2730 1118, 6 p.m.-4 a.m.
Crocodile hot pot
From a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) perspective, crocodile hot pot is really good for the respiratory system, curing coughs and strengthening the lungs.
It is quite common to find crocodile on the menu in Vietnam and Hainan Island but quite rare in Hong Kong.
The crocodile and chicken hot pot at 雞煲 (or "chicken pot") includes a plate of crocodile meat, crocodile tail and crocodile innards, as well as half a chicken.
Owner Mr. Lee says: "These are 15-year-old crocodiles from Thailand. The first five years of their lives they are fed fish, the following 10 years they are fed chicken. There are brought up on hormone-free feed."
The hot pot broth is heavy with medicinal herb flavors, as the combination of crocodile, nata de coco, jujubes, apricot kernels and cordyceps flowesr are cooked for eight hours. The flavor is mildly sweet and wholesome.
Drink this medicinal soup first to ward off winter illness and then cook the fresh crocodile and chicken meat in the broth.
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners warn not to eat the potent crocodile hot pot if you have a fever or the flu.
雞煲, Shop 9, 2/F, Smithfield Cooked Food Centre, 12K Smithfield Road, Sheung Wan, +852 2816 2098, 5 p.m.-midnight
