Sichuan hotpot, representative of Sichuan cuisine

Sichuan hotpot is a representative of Sichuan cuisine and is famous for being spicy, fresh and fragrant. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, tofu, and seafood. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce.

Sichuan hotpot dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when it was created in a small town on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Local boatmen cooked a kind of spicy soup with vegetables, meat and hot peppers to help them in the humid, cold weather. Over hundreds of years, hotpot evolved to become a major Sichuan cuisine.

The dipping sauces are usually made of sesame oil with garlic and green onion. People can put any meat and vegetables including potato, lotus root and tofu into the pot.