Chinese Thanksgiving

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't terribly miss home on Thanksgiving. I did however miss the food. So my thought was if I can't be home for Thanksgiving, I might as well go eat my favorite Chinese food, hotpot! For those of you who don't know, hotpot is the greatest thing to come from China, better then gunpowder, fireworks and whatever else has come from China.

Hotpot is literally a pot of boiling soup placed at the center of your table. The pot is generally split between spicy and not spicy broth. You then order all of the ingredients that you want, vegetables, meats, noodles etc. You then put all of what you ordered into the pots and let it cook in front of you. In addition to the flavoring that comes from being cooked in the broths, you also prepare your own dipping sauce by taking things like peanut sauce, onions, garlic, MSG, spices and what-not.

The hotpot restaurant that my friends and I went to is considered the best in Beijing, and so when you go around dinner time, there is generally and hour to two hour wait (its worth it). So what the restuarant does is set up little tables for people to sit at, they provide popcorn and other snacks. Many people will bring cards or other games to play while they wait.

Also one thing that is common in restaurants in China particularly hotpot restaurants is for the restaurant to give you a plastic baggie to put your phone in because all Chinese people leave their phone out when they are at the table.

Here are some pictures from hotpot:

One thing that I will try and focus on in the next few posts is food in China, because I haven't discussed it much and I think it is a very fun and interesting topic.

I also hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!