Hot pot

Hot pot

Raw foods ready to be cooked
Alternative names	steamboat
Course	Main dishes
Place of origin	Mongolia, China
Main ingredients	meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, dumplings, and seafood

Hot pot (also known as steamboat in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, China, Taiwan, and Brunei) refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, tofu, and seafood. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. Hot pot meals are usually eaten in the winter during supper time.

The Chinese hot pot has a history of more than 1,000 years. Hot pot seems to have originated in Mongolia and the Jin Dynasty where the main ingredient was meat, usually beef, mutton or horse. It then spread to southern China during the Song Dynasty and was further established during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. In time, regional variations developed with different ingredients such as seafood. By the Qing Dynasty (AD 1644 to 1912), the hot pot became popular throughout most of China. Today in many modern homes, particularly in larger cities, the traditional coal-heated steamboat or hot pot has been replaced by electric, propane, butane gas, or induction cooker versions.