Sunshine and a few clouds. High 91F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Mostly clear. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.

Keep up with the latest news with one or more of our free email newsletters.

The beef combination plate with curry broth at Sichuan Hot Pot.

The beef combination plate with curry broth at Sichuan Hot Pot.

Hot Pot is a meal, yes, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a sensory experience. It, in some ways, is a project. It demands your attention in the best, most delicious way.

Hot Pot is the ultimate in DIY dining. It involves broth that’s brought to the table and installed in a built-in heating element that takes it to boiling in seconds. You select the meats and vegetables to go with it and then you cook them yourself in the broth. And one of the best places to get Hot Pot is at Sichuan Hot Pot, 5680 Nolensville Pike.

If you are a diner with a decision-making problem, it might take you all day just to hone in on your order. First, there’s the type of broth. Would you like curry, lamb, herb or one of the other 10 options? Then there’s what meat you will dunk in the broth. How about pork, chicken or one of the other too-long-to-list other options?  And vegetables? A veritable supermarket produce department. And you haven’t even gotten to the vast array of sauces. Is your head hurting yet?

This is one of the few meals where pleasant conversation with your dining mates takes a back seat to concentrating on the project at hand. Some of the meats take less than 30 seconds to cook. You have to pay attention. Then once you’re done, you have to transfer the meats to your individual soup bowls and ladle in some of the fiery hot broth. Carefully. It is not for nothing that there is a “for your safety” warning on the menu.

But don’t let any of this scare you. Hot Pot is a lot of fun.

The first thing to decide when you order Hot Pot is what kind of broth you want. You can’t go wrong. Some of the choices will be unfamiliar, such as green clam broth and winter melon broth. But you can stay on the familiar side with herb, tomato or curry.

Then you decide your meat or seafood. Again, you can stick with what you know – beef, chicken or pork – or step outside the lines with sausages, lamb or a dizzying number of seafood options including scallops, mussels and shrimp.  Vegetables range from the usual options like corn, spinach and mushrooms to more exotic ones such as lotus root, pea leaves and white radishes.

First timers might want to go for a combination plate. Once you pick your protein, Sichuan rounds out the platter with vegetables that go with your selection. The beef platter also included spinach, corn, cabbage, tofu and rice noodles. It’s good to have a general idea of what cooks more quickly and what doesn’t. The spinach takes less than a minute in the broth while the corn is more like 7-8 minutes.

A word of caution if you order the combination seafood plate. There is more work involved than you may want to do. It includes a whole crab that you crack after it’s cooked, clams that sink to the bottom of the hot pot that are then a little dicey to get back out and three absolutely beautiful, very large head-on shrimp that have to be peeled.

And what does Hot Pot taste like? That’s the beauty of it. It tastes like everything you love (because you picked it), bathed in a luxurious broth.

Catherine Mayhew is a former restaurant critic for The Charlotte Observer, cookbook author and master BBQ judge. Follow her @thesouthinmymouth on Instagram to see what she’s eating and email her at food@mainstreetmediatn.com with suggestions on your favorite restaurants and food trucks. 

Keep up with the latest headlines from Nashville with our free weekly e-newsletter!

Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.

Check your email for details.

Invalid password or account does not exist

Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.

An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.

Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.

A receipt was sent to your email.