It was time to hit the outdoors again for some food. About a year back this place in the city of Eindhoven had opened called Hot and Hot and they serve 'sort of' traditional Hot pot. At least the concept is there, and honestly most of the guests that visit are Chinese, since the city is housing more and more expats due to the housing of the company ASML in the region.
So it was time for some hotpot and I was really looking forward to it again!
For the people who are not familiar with the concept of hotpot: This is taking raw ingredients like veggies or meat or fish and boiling them into a soup. This soup can contain from anything you like. From super spicy soup based entirely on chillies, or there are also option like mushroom soup or tomatoe based soup.
Whatever you like can be the option. Also it depends on what you are boiling on how long it can take. If you have a thin slice of meat it is enough with holding the piece under water only like for 15 seconds. You can do this in the spicy soup as it only takes up a little bit of the flavour.
Veggies depending if it is a leafy vegetable or more of a rooty vegetable has to either soak in like a minute up to three minutes. Really important as I had learned last time is that time is that when you boil veggies you should never boil them in the spicy soup. The fat of the veggies soaks up the heat of the peppers. Last time I was there I can tell you it ended up being a really warm experience 🔥🔥🔥
Luckily there is also bubble tea! I love it that this trend finally has passed over from Asia to Europa. I think I had my first bubble tea like 10 years ago somewhere in China and then I wasn't able to ever find it again anymore.
Up until the last couple of years since it has been coming up here a bit more. And I love it! For the people not familiar with bubble tea. you can get this is all kinds of flavours as in tea with milk, but also in the fruity version. I am for sure more of the fruity type and it has pupping bubbles in there. Also little pieces of sweet tapioca are in it making it all a super nice but really sugary drink.
What better when you have over heated yourself with too much hot soup than to cool it off again with a bit of fruity sweet drinks!
But the best of the hot pot concept is the dip sauce that you make yourself to finally dip in your boiled piece. I made a dipsauce with soy, ketjap, fishsauce, peanutparts, cilantro, spring onion and peppers to dip everything in. Honestly it is the sauce that makes the snack in the end.
So yeah, hotpots! It took a good 10 years to get them over here in the country side as well, but damn..I love it!