Cookware · Hearths
Hot pot
A simmering pot in the middle of the table: the meal is the fire the guests cook for themselves.
The journey
Hot pot is a hearth you sit around. A wide pot of broth — sometimes divided, sometimes a single storm of chile — stays at a boil while meat, greens, and noodles go in by the chopstick. Chinese winter tables, and the diaspora that remembered them, still build dinner this way.
A saucepan on the stove is a stew. A hot pot is a table with a chimney.
In the kitchen
Keep the broth at a true simmer. Slice meat thin. Sauce bowls are half the meal. Do not let the pot go quiet.
The Chinese volume's communal pages assume this centerpiece. An electric pot is the apartment stand-in.