Wirecutter - Goodbye, hot pot season

Marilyn Ong

Hi! Brittney Ho here—I’m one of the people who edits this newsletter, I’m a winter hater, and I’m a lifelong hot pot lover. Let me explain.

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I’ve never been a fan of the winter, or the way it dries up my nose, or forces me to bundle up in stuffy layers, or engulfs me in pitch darkness at 5 p.m. But I happily brave all of that each year, because I know the season brings one of my all-time favorite comfort meals: hot pot.

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Hot pot is a meal best enjoyed in chilly temperatures and warm company. A big pot of simmering broth sits in the middle of the table, surrounded by plates of raw greens, protein, and root veggies. Dunk, cook, eat, repeat.

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This weekend, our family is throwing our last hot pot extravaganza of the season—our way of saying goodbye to winter—and we’re pulling out all the stops: We’re preparing a pot of spicy broth to bubble away at the table. We’re filling small sauce dishes to the brim with hot chiles, fragrant sesame oil, and crispy garlic. And of course, we’re preparing mounds of fresh veggies (we love watercress and crunchy lotus root) and paper-thin slices of meat (the lamb never lasts long in our house) to cook at the table.

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If all of that sounds as overwhelming as it does delicious, don’t worry—our team of kitchen experts has recently updated our guide to everything you need to host a hot pot dinner. Start with the basics: a cooking vessel and a portable heat source. Then level up with soup bases and soup skimmers. As supervising editor Marilyn Ong writes, “As soon as you’ve done it once, you’ll feel like an expert. We promise.”

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Come springtime, I won’t miss the frosty fingers or chapped lips, but I will certainly miss the smell of hot pot wafting through my kitchen. ’Til next winter.

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Throw your own hot pot dinner →