Hua Jiao peppers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut its just another Wednesday night in Chengdu. The whole Yulin Street strip is bustling with activity as waiters scurry out onto the street passing out baskets of sunflower seeds to placate the dozens of people sitting and stewing in the Sichuan summer, waiting impatiently for a table to free up.<\/p>\n
Hot Pot is but another Sichuanese institution \u2013 like teahouses and foggy skies \u2013 without which the locals would slowly wither and die. In fact, the overcast Sichuan sky and the damp conditions of the Sichuan basin make hot pot, chili peppers and hua jiao <\/em>peppercorn a necessity.<\/p>\n\u201cYou see, Sichuan is a very damp area,\u201d explains Fan Jing. \u201cSuch weather is bad for the bones and bad for circulation. We have to eat spicy food in order to balance out our body temperature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her pedantic expression dissolves into a dreamy distant gaze as she slurps up hot pot dripping duck intestines.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are dozens of different hot pot varieties: the basic chili pepper-hua jiao<\/em> red pot; the split red and white \u2013 white pot being a non-spicy version with mushrooms in a chicken broth; crab hot pot; fish head hot pot; lamb hot pot; beer lamb hot pot; bullfrog hot pot; and snake hot pot, to name a few.<\/p>\nWhatever can be boiled, can be thrown into the pot to augment the basic chili pepper oil foundation. Standard ingredients include: all parts of the pig, chicken and cow; various freshwater creatures, such as river eels, snails, frogs and fish; any and all vegetables, including but not limited to potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, lotus root, bamboo, leeks and onions and a variety of gourds and tubers for which there are no English translation.<\/p>\n
Hot pot is the pinnacle of all culinary experiences for Sichuanese. Hot pot is a social event, a bonding experience and a rite of passage. Courage is measured in a man\u2019s ability to eat hot pot repeatedly and vigorously, while drinking as many beers as possible. Acceptance into the heart of a Sichuanese woman requires several demonstrations of hot pot eating prowess. Business deals and marriage proposals alike can be sanctified before the hot pot altar.<\/p>\n
Hot pot restaurants are, in general, loud and boisterous halls partially obscured by rising steam and moving bodies. The floors are often slick with oil and remnants of the last meal. An army of girls patrols each restaurant sweeping and wiping the floors, clearing and setting up tables and reporting back to a cadre of well-dressed men with sharp eyes and earphones. Outside, another small army of women prepares the ingredients. A crack team of boys and girls take orders, deliver the food and accept cash. Specialists tend to the gas stoves located in the center of each table.<\/p>\n
Thus is the chaos of the hot pot establishment managed and controlled, with the boss and his wife attending to the private rooms and smiling fondly at old friends.<\/p>\n