Hehe,the hotpot...mmmh, my most favorite. I feel uncomfortable without a hotpot meal at least once a week.
I once read an article about the origin of Hotpot.
Story had it that in the late Qing dynasty, Chongqing has already been an important dock at the upper reach of Yangtze river.Cargos from Sichuan were shipped from this dock.Hence,there were groups of porters living on delivering goods from the bank onto the ship.Sometimes, they had to wait for a job in the nights. They suffered a lot in the winter nights since it was freezingly cold along the river bund.Fortunately, there was slaughterhouse nearby the dock.Inner organs of the klled bulls were threw out from the slaughterhouse.Some floated down the river.The porters picked them up and washed them then boiled them with chili. By this way, they ran the cold away.But later, they found they could not eat the food over at one time when the job came and it turned cold when they came back from the work. Then, they seeked a good way out that is to burn the pot underneath to keep the soup boiled.This is the origination of the hotpot.
Later by later, people added more and more ingredients into the hotpot soup.Till now, the hotpot have develped into a series dishes but there is one thing that is always kept, the butter soup.The authentic hotpot will still offer some inner organs of the bulls.
If there are some friends come to Chengdu, you can contact me by:
china-tour-expert@hotmail.com and I will show you the good hotpot restaurants.