Popular hot pot chain plans to export brand to US

Chinese hot pot is a cooking method that originated in Mongolia more than a millennium ago, spread in popularity over the centuries and eventually developed into a variety of regional styles. Today, people flock to hot pot restaurants in China to eat and socialize over a communal cauldron of food.

"Hai Di Lao" is the name of a popular Chinese hot pot chain and translates as "fishing in the bottom of the sea", to represent the process of extracting cooked ingredients from the depths of boiling cauldrons. With 75 restaurants to its name, Hai Di Lao recently announced plans to open its first US location in September in the affluent Los Angeles neighborhood of Arcadia.

"The fact that Hai Di Lao is opening its first location in California points to a built-in model for success," said Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods series. "There's already a monstrous demographic there ready for this kind of restaurant."

The concept is like fondue, but instead of wine-spiked cheese, various forms of broths - from tongue-numbing spicy to a more mellow herbal broth - are brought to boil to cook an array of meats, seafood, vegetables, bean curd and noodles, which are then dipped in various sauces and consumed.

Hai Di Lao, which launched in Sichuan in 1994 and opened its first international branch in Singapore last year, brings a VIP element to the hot pot tradition. Customers in China are treated to a variety of benefits and services, which help appease potential frustration over wait lists for tables that can average during peak hours between 50 to 75 parties.

While they wait, patrons can pick at unlimited free snacks, check e-mail at Internet terminals, play chess or other board games, or get pampered with a shoeshine, manicure or hand massage.

In the dining room, customers are treated to hot towels, eyeglass wipes to clear away fog build-up, hair ties, plastic bags to protect cell phones from hot pot splatter and the highly entertaining "noodle dance".

Noodle masters train an average of four to six months before they perform great acrobatic feats with foot-long lumps of dough. Through choreography reminiscent of a rhythmic gymnast wielding a fluttering ribbon, a noodle master stretches the wedge into a thin 10-foot-long continuous noodle by whipping and swirling the dough around in the air. The noodles are eventually tossed into the broth.

However, Zimmern said the American consumer can be "very fickle" and a restaurant has one chance to make a good first impression.

The food writer's recommendation for Hai Di Lao successfully entering the US market is to convey the story of hot pot cuisine.

Over the past decade or more, Zimmern has witnessed a shift in the American appetite from a preference for Continental cuisine to more "single craftsman" restaurants where menus are more focused on one style, such as Japanese tempura or Brazilian steakhouses.

Zimmern said he believes there are ready customer bases not only on the highly Asian populated West and East coasts, but also in the Midwest where places like his native Minneapolis experience cold winters, making the idea of a warming hot pot experience all the more appealing.