'We Try It' is a regular series, we try the latest alternative food and beverage products.
Preparing and executing Mala Tang at home is a process. You need to dig out an old electric stove you never use, make broth, chop up vegetables and meat, and then, obviously, cook it all. After: terrible and inevitable greasy cleanup.
If it can be easier, you may have hoped before. And now, with the advent of pre-packaged self-heating hot pot.
The fire fruit inspired by instant noodles is ready in 15 minutes without external heating. Although there are many pre-packaged hot pot brands, we tasted the appropriate Chongqing self-heating hot pot.
The meal is in a square red plastic container. All the necessary hot pot ingredients and accessories are in it: spicy soup mixture, vegetables, meat, seaweed, water-activated heating pad and a small plastic cooking "pot".
The meal preparation is as follows:
1. Remove the smaller bowl from the container. Add Chongqing soup powder, then add about half of the water.
2. Add pre-packaged meat and vegetables to the hot broth.
3. Place the heating pad on the bottom of the large bowl and add about an inch of water to activate the heating pad.
4. Put the small bowl into the large bowl, and then close the lid. Boil for 15 minutes.
When cooking food, steam flows continuously from a hole in the lid and around the top edge, giving off a pungent smell.
Inside a steaming plastic container, a large amount of food—potatoes, seaweed, mushrooms, chicken, tripe and intestines (source unknown), lotus root, bamboo shoots and noodles—boiled in a super spicy broth.
When you are done, open the top to enjoy the authentic (ish) Chongqing-style fire fruit.
Although we are skeptical, the pre-packaged hot pot provides a variety of flavors of food. This dish is also loyal to the spiciness and numbness that you either start to understand and love, or are afraid of.
A word of wisdom: If you don’t like super spicy heat that irritates your throat in a meal, don’t use the whole broth mixture. According to our experience, half of the soup dumpling is enough to make you blush.
For more "we try", click here.
Let's try the hot pot Chongqing spicy
Stay tuned for future food videos and let us know what you think Peggy and Joshua should try next.
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