During the first year of covid at a certain moment I saw that one of the cooler Spanish restaurants in the city of Eindhoven was for sale. A bummer, as this was always a more authentic place where the vibe was good, and the dishes were different compared to your normal tapas place in the Netherlands (think patatas bravas and mushrooms in garlic sauce and that is it....no no, this place was different.
The place was gone for a good while and that is when the first signs were popping up that a Hotpot franchise would take in the place in our city. And boy I love a good hotpot!
I think the first time I ever had a hotpot was somewhere in Beijing and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. With the language barriere I just pointed at some tables what they were eating and food ended up on the table. The soups were delicious and and the dipping were sublime.
I was super siked but never found anything like this after this experience. I tried different hotpots but non of them was focussed so much on the quality of the soup and the home made dipping sauce. Up until now...
After the announcement that a hot & hot would open in the city of Eindhoven I started checking nearly every week if the place had opened already. And two weeks ago it finally had its soft opening, but due to covid and my lack of smell and taste I wasn't so enthusiastic on going. But now was the time!
If you are not familiar with a hotpot concept; the idea is that you have a raw ingredient and you dip it into a soup for an x-amount of time depending on what it is. We had 3 different homemade soups -from where the stock was made and cooked overnight-, with a variety of spicyness in there.
After dipping your ingredient in the soup you dip it in a sauce afterwards and presto...flavour everywhere. And we tend to eat a bit spicy there was also some room for bubbletea which I had the passionfruit lime with bubbles in there and this was a really good one for getting the heat down a bit. Damn I would get this bubble tea any given day while passing by and the weather is good. An nice addition for a different type of drink.
The scala of ingredients at hot & hot was quite different than the average Chinese place here for food. With options for beef tongue and pig aorta these are really other things to order and eat that usual.
Although I am experimental with food, today was not the time and we stuck to having a couple of Tsingtao beers and catching up with friends as this is how hotpot should be.
Sharing food, having some beers, eating a bit and chitchatting while the food is getting ready. That is how you should fill your weekend night!
