Hotpot is the defining meal of Sichuan, and in Chengdu it is a nightly institution: a pot of boiling broth set into the table, plates of raw ingredients around it, and a crowd of people cooking their own dinner and talking for two or three hours. The format is fixed and the details are not. Broth, dip and the way the ingredients are ordered all vary, and knowing the differences is the difference between a good hotpot and a confusing one.
The broth
The base flavour is mala - chilli heat combined with the citrus-and-numbness of Sichuan peppercorn - carried in either beef tallow or vegetable oil. The tallow version, closely associated with Chongqing, sets as it cools and coats the ingredients heavily, producing a dense, clinging heat; the oil version favoured in much of Chengdu is lighter and lets the flavour of the ingredients through. Most restaurants offer a divided pot, with a mild clear broth on one side and the spicy one on the other, which is the sensible choice for a mixed group or a first visit. Some houses also offer tomato, mushroom or sour broth bases.
The dip and the ordering
The dip is not the broth. Sichuan hotpot is eaten by lifting the cooked ingredient out and dipping it in a small bowl of sesame oil with raw garlic and coriander, which cools the food and cuts the heat; other tables mix vinegar, chilli paste, peanut, fermented bean curd and chopped spring onion, and the sesame oil base is usually brought to the table for you to build on. Ingredients come either as plates ordered from a menu - sliced beef and lamb, tripe, liver, kidneys, fish, prawns, tofu skin, potato, lotus root, mushrooms, greens - or as skewers, the chuanchuan format, where you take what you want from a refrigerated wall and pay per skewer at the end, which is cheaper and more sociable.
Practical notes
Hotpot restaurants are open from around eleven in the morning until very late, and they are busiest after eight in the evening, when there may be a queue; take a number and wait. Expect to pay per person for the broth and the dip, then per plate or skewer. The heat is serious, and it builds over the meal, so order the mild side, keep the sesame dip topped up and drink the local tea rather than cold beer if you want to last. Most houses have English words on the menu or an illustrated ordering sheet, and staff will help; a hotpot meal is one of the easiest meals in China for a visitor to order without speaking the language.
