The Hotpot Tutorial

The Hotpot Experience
Yuanyang huoguo refers to a type of hotpot that is two separate broths: one spicy and one mild. You order your broth, your ingredients, and your sauces. You drop your ingredients into the pot of bubbly broth and cook for just a few minutes, seconds in some instances. You take them out, dip them in a sauce of your choosing and enjoy.

This is just the spicy broth:

This is the CCTV Chinese Language lesson that started my obsession with hotpot. The transcript is below:

Lesson 24

waiter: Which soup base would you like?

Liu Yong: Do you like spicy food?

Xiao Jie: No，I can’t take it.

Liu Yong: Then we’ll get the Yuanyang soup base.

Xiao Jie: Isn’t Yuanyang a type of bird?

Liu Yong: Here, Yuanyang soup base means two bases in one pot，but divided in the middle.

female classmate: The meat tastes different depending on which soup base you cook it in.

Liu Yong: The lamb here is really good, there’s none of that strong lamb taste. How about we try some? .

woman: We’ll get some lamb, some beef, and some vegetables.

Liu Yong: （says to waiter）Tofu, vermicelli, Chinese cabbage, two plates of lamb and two plates of beef.

waiter: Which sauce would the three of you like?

woman: What sauces do you have?

waiter: Sesame oil, sesame paste and seafood sauce.

woman: Three bowls of sesame oil.

（the hotpot is brought to the table）

Xiao Jie: Wow，it’s half white and half red. It looks great.

Liu: The pot is boiling. Let’s start putting stuff in.

female classmate: The meat’s changed colour. That means it’s cooked. Quick, the meat tastes good while it’s hot!

Xiao Jie: This is piping hot and yummy!

Editor:Liu Source:CCTV.com