Our First Hot Pot Dinner

Tonight we went to dinner with some fellow Intel Expats as well as some of their coworkers who are from Dalian. I had never had hot pot before and was not quite sure what it was but was excited to give it a shot. When deciding to come to China I said that I would not be too scared or too picky to try new things. I almost chickened out on that decision tonight but pushed myself to be more adventurous.


Hot pot is pretty cool. Basically they put a pot with oil bubbling away in the center of the table and bring you veggies, meat, and seafood raw for you to cook in it. You plop in what you want to eat and let it cook then scoop it out and dip it in your dipping sauce of choice. At our table Argon and Annie (who we knew from when they were Inpats in AZ) ordered for us and taught us what to do. The first thing that went into the hot pot were very thin slices of mutton. Yummy. Then Annie put a plate in my face and told me to try it. It was goose feet. Now I told myself that I would be open and try things but now I was facing raw goose feet. It was pickled and spiced and I was not supposed to cook it I was just supposed to eat it. I slowly grabbed one and then looked at it for a minute not wanting to insult Annie as she had just eaten one before offering it to me and kept saying it was good. Ken was sitting next to me and saw my hesitation so he grabbed one and ate it first to encourage me. So I did what I said I would do I ate it. It was chewy, a little spicy and like I said had a pickle taste to it. Not yummy but not gross either. =-) The next thing that went into the hot pot and on my plate was a brown tube looking thing. I asked what it was and was told it was seafood and they didn't know how it was said in English. I like seafood so I gave it a shot as well. It did not taste like much but was very, very chewy. Later I asked someone else what it was and found out it was a sea worm. Lovely. The last new thing I tried was oyster. I have never tried it before and now was a good a time as any. It was not bad, fishy but I would try it again. After trying all that new stuff I filled myself up on more mutton, some duck and some very yummy veggies.

The hot pot cooking up some mutton. The flowers etc floating on top were for seasoning.

Mikayla and Declan had not slept so they were not as fun loving as usual. Mikayla ate rice, veggies, mutton and some duck. She didn't feel like trying much new and her favorite part was the ice cream bar they gave us at the end. Declan on the other hand was not in the mood to be anywhere other then bed. He threw a fit for about the first hour of dinner. I was so embarrassed. I know moms say this all the time but I really mean it...he has NEVER acted this bad in public before. Actually I don't know that he has acted that bad at home either. I knew he was tired so finally I took him out to the car and had the driver drive us around the block. He fell asleep within minutes and napped in the car with the driver while we finished eating. I am hoping he still sleeps through the night since it was only like 7 when he went to bed and he had not eaten yet but we shall see.

All in all once Declan went to sleep and I could stop stressing it was a very fun night. I look forward to trying hot pot again but maybe with some more "safe" foods. =-)

Ken and Argon