Hong Kong hot-pot at home - 在家吃港式火鍋

It's been a while I haven't done a food post. Most east Asians (Taiwanese, Korean, or Japanese) or Chinese are fascinated with hot-pot particularly at low winter temperatures. Sitting around a steamy cooking pot at the dinning table and savouring piping hot and freshly boiled food certainly can keep one warm as if one were sitting next to a fireplace where burning and crackling tree logs release and diffuse heat around the house.

Hot pot in Taiwan, South Korea, Mainland China, Japan, or Hong Kong is similar to Swiss cheesy fondue, both need a big pot and a portable stove set up at the dinning table. What tell them apart are

1. Broth for hotpot is flexible; clear, chicken, beef, mutton, pork, or vegan is usual. Whereas fondue broth is made of cheese;
2. Hot pot has a thin soup whereas fondue has a gooey and cheesy texture of broth
   3.Hot pot ingredients are mostly raw and supposed to be fully cooked in the pot over medium or high heat whereas bread chucks are dipped and coated with cheese in a fondue pot over low heat;
3. One can add as many condiments as he or she wishes in hot pot for flavour enhancement whereas one doesn't add any condiments atop in fondue;
4. Chopsticks and bowls are used in hot pot whereas plates and tiny forks are used in fondue.
   
   
   We're having hotpot this evening at home. Excuse me, didn't you just say hotpot is particularly for the winter time, did you? But why now in April? With air-conditioning on indoors, hot pot is good all-season long.

It's quite handy in Hong Kong where seafood is always in large supply. I bought fresh prawns, fresh scallops, fresh lobsters, fresh abalones, and fresh mud crabs, yes, all fresh not frozen. Whenever I have a choice, I always opt for fresh seafood. Taste and texture of fresh seafood are heaven. These all add up to about HKD 500.

A balanced diet must go with a handful of mushrooms, radish and corn chucks, bean curd slices, and greens.

I chopped up some chillies, spring onion, and cloves of garlic for all-you-can-add self-serving condiments at the table. Add whatever to a bowl to heighten taste.

This is soy sauce and sesame oil mixed with the chillies, spring onion, and garlic .



I know the soup looks extremely unpleasant, but this is Sichuan style full of herbs, pepper, chillies, and oil. The dark colour is what the Sichuan style is supposed to be.

Photos and content is original.

我有一段時間沒有寫過食物帖了。大多數東亞人（台灣人，韓國人或日本人）或中國人都對火鍋很著迷，特別是在冬季氣溫低的時候。坐在餐桌上的蒸汽鍋旁邊，品嚐熱騰騰的新鮮煮熟的食物，去保持溫暖，就好像坐在壁爐旁邊。

台灣，韓國，中國大陸，日本或香港的火鍋與瑞士芝士火鍋相似，都需要在餐桌上擺放一個大鍋和一個便攜式爐子。分別是
1.火鍋湯可以靈活的;清，雞肉，牛肉，羊肉，豬肉或素是平常的。火鍋湯由奶酪製成;
2.火鍋有一薄湯，而火鍋有一種粘糊糊的湯質地
3.熱鍋配料大多是未煮熟的，在中等或高溫下在鍋中完全煮熟，而麵包夾則在低熱的情況下浸泡在塗有芝士的火鍋中;
4.人們可以添加盡可能多的調味品，以便在火鍋中增加喜好，而不會在火鍋上添加任何調味品;
5.筷子和碗用於火鍋，而碟和小叉則用於火鍋。

我們今晚在家吃火鍋。對不起，你剛才說火鍋是否特別適合冬天的時候，是嗎？室內配有空調，吃火鍋都很好。

在香港，海鮮總是大量供應，非常方便。我買了新鮮的蝦，新鮮的扇貝，新鮮的龍蝦，新鮮的鮑魚和新鮮的泥蟹，都是新鮮的，不是雪藏。每當我有選擇時，我總是選擇新鮮的海鮮。新鮮海鮮的口感和質感是完全不同。這些都加起來約為500港元。

我知道這湯看起來非常不愉快，但這是四川風格，充滿了草藥，胡椒，辣椒和油。深色的湯是應有的四川風格。