The Origins of Hot Pot 火锅

Ever wonder about the stories behind Hot Pot 火锅? The other night we had Hot Pot at a friend's house. I'm from Mainland China; and the hostess is from Taiwan. We talked about how popular Hot Pot is in both China and Taiwan. Politics may divide us; but Hot Pot brings us together. That got me thinking about the origins of Hot Pot.

There are many theories and stories out there. Of course, the 5000 years of Chinese history could take us as far back as the Shang and Zhou Period. 火锅 (Huo3 Guo1) literally means "Fire Pot." As long as it is food cooked in a pot over a fire (or a hot surface) and directly eaten out of it, I guess that qualifies as Hot Pot.

Back in the Shang/Zhou period (about 4000 years ago), the ancient Chinese like people elsewhere spent a lot of time performing all kinds of rituals such as praying for rain or longer life. Rituals often involve eating and drinking. It is said that that's the beginning of Hot Pot - meats (of course, without modern day's vast choice of spices and flavors) cooked in a big vassal with 3 or 4 legs over an open fire.

The rest of Hot Pot's history seems to evolve along with the discovery and development of materials used in making the pot. For example, copper and iron later were used in making cooking utensils. That seems to be a big step forward over earthenware in terms of heat conductivity. During the Three Kingdom Period, a dish called Wu Shu Fu (五熟釜) added some sophistication to Hot Pot. It had 5 sections in a pot so that one can taste multiple flavors. What a smart idea! But imagine having a chopstick fight over which section one should dip into!

The Song Dynasty saw a big boost in the fame of Hot Pot after Lin Hong (林洪), an intellectual, bragged about an amazing meal that he had when visiting a hermit friend in the mountains. The story goes like this: one day on his way into the mountains to visit his hermit friend, it was snowing; he saw a rabbit limping along, so he caught that rabbit and brought it to his friend's house. He didn't know how to cook it, so the hermit friend showed him how - slice the rabbit up and throw them in a boiling pot and pour in some soy sauce, wine and other ingredients. It turned out to be a delicious meal. Lin Hong raved about it and even gave it a poetic name, "Bo Xia Gong" (拨霞供). That's already very close to modern day version of Hot Pot.

Another theory goes that Genghis Khan came up with the idea of Hot Pot which is easy to cook and serve so that he can feed his hordes of troops. Supposedly, they dipped slices of lamb into flavored soup. But I always thought that the Mongolians preferred roasted meats.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Hot Pot started showing up on menus of restaurants. The well-known essayist, Yuan Mei, in his writings also mentioned Hot Pot. The Sichuan numbingly hot Hot Pot was said to have started on street vendors' small mobile food stalls. Later on, it got so popular restaurants started making their own Sichuan-styled Hot Pot.

What a simple idea! Yet, the western cuisine doesn't really have anything quite like that. When the humans were all sitting around a fire thousands of years ago, didn't they come up with similar ideas like a Hot Pot dish? Maybe that's where civilization had its earliest diversion - one leaning toward collectivism and the other individualism. Modern day Hot Pot can even fabulously combine these two distinctive styles without sacrificing the great eating atmosphere a Hot Pot can bring about.

If you have a great story about Hot Pot, you are welcome to share it with me!