How to Hotpot in Washington DC

Hi friend! Thanks for finding this post. You either moved to DC and realized the lack of accessible Asian grocery stores, or you’re not Chinese and have heard your [token] Chinese friend describe this magical meal that clearly resembles fondue. Hot pot is the easiest way to feed and satisfy multiple guests. It’s interactive, communal, and everyone leaves happy.

I grew up eating hot pot. My mom always said that it was the easiest dinner to make. I live in Washington DC and for many years I didn’t hotpot at home because there aren’t any Asian groceries in the city. Enter this post – I’ll share with you where to source the ingredients and have your friends over. For an in-depth look at hot pot, read this Serious Eats article by Shao Z. And no that is not me.

You can make hot pot gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan as well, if you so choose.

I’ll file this post under cooking experience rather than a cooking techniques. I’ll make a knife cuts addendum next.

Table of Contents

• Quick Recap: How to Hot Pot
• Ingredients for Hot Pot
• Places to get Ingredients
• Different Soup Bases
• Quantity
• Sauce

Six Steps to Hot Pot

1. Have an electric pot. I have the shabu and grill multi-cooker by Tayama but it’s no longer in stock on Amazon. This one by SPT would do the trick. These are compact and store well. The item descriptions may advertise 4 quarts, but the pot itself can only hold 2.25 quarts. An appliance of this size (~L 12″ x W 12″ x H 8″) can comfortably cook for four people and six people eating slower. I’ve had up to 9, but now I have a second mini-pot. I like having the two separate hot pots so I can scale easier for the number of guests.
2. Invite your friends – how many mouths are there to feed?
3. Source the ingredients. I’ll cover a few places below.
   • It’s 2023 and there are a number of different soup bases out on the market. It’s too much effort to make so I buy pre-made packets. I’ll share my favorites.
4. Set up the table. Chopsticks work best for hotpot. I set out a pair for every guest and provide communal spoons to fish out round items like fish balls or delicate items like fish slices. If you hotpot a few times a year, invest in some hot pot wire strainers. Lay some newspaper or placemats on the table to catch spilled soup.
5. Make a communal sauce – see recipe below.
6. Unwrap the meats, wash the vegetables, cut ingredients into bite sized pieces, and Tetris the ingredients so it all fits on the table. Grab a side table or use the breakfast bar if needed. Eat and make a beautiful food baby.

Ingredients for Hot Pot

Chinese cooking, and eating, is all about balance. This means getting a variety of proteins, carbohydrates, and vegetables. Here’s my full list – I’ll scale this list to the number of guests.

• Meats (do’s and don’t) – should be sliced 3mm thin, think think deli meats or meats used for Philly cheesesteaks. They’re frozen and either layered flat or rolled.
  • Do: Lamb shoulder – this is the absolute favorite growing up.
  • Do: Pork belly – The meat is incredibly tender and not oily at all. Absolute favorite now. I prefer pork belly with less fat
  • Do: Ribeye or fatty brisket – for all the beef eaters out there
  • Do: sliced white fish – tilapia and swai – incredibly soft
  • Don’t: chicken. Overcooks easily and have no taste by itself. Save it for chicken and rice bulking dishes.
  • Don’t: shrimp. There are so many exciting ways to cook shrimp. Hot pot is not one of them.
  • Maybe: tripe and organs. It’s a shared pot after all.
• Fungus
  • Enoki mushrooms
  • Button mushrooms
  • Oyster mushrooms
  • Wood ear mushrooms
  • Go ham here. Any mushroom cut into bite-sized pieces works here. People love the mushrooms
• Vegetables
  • Spinach
  • Pea shoots
  • Napa cabbage
  • Shanghai bok choy tips
  • Daisy crowns
  • Squash
  • Daikon radish
• Noodles
  • Udon. It’s less prone to overcooking and getting mushy.
  • Korean rice cakes. Same as udon.
• Bean and fish paste products
  • Fish balls, fish tofu, crab balls, squid balls. Asian grocery stores have pre-packaged and scoop-it-yourself selections.
  • Stuffed fished balls with roe or pork
  • Firm tofu
  • Tofu puffs
  • Reconstituted bean curd
• Miscellaneous
  • Canned quail eggs – already cooked and peeled

Places to get the ingredients

• If you have a car or a friend, roommate, or partner with a car, here are the closest Asian grocery stories from downtown DC. Driving distances are one way. You’ll be looking at 1-2 hour roundtrip.
  • New Grand Mart – Hyattsville, MD (7.4 miles)
  • H Mart – Wheaton (10.7 miles)
  • H Mart Falls Church (14.9)
  • Great Wall Supermarket – Falls Church (14.9)
  • H Mart – Fairfax (19.8 miles)
• If you’re on that no-car diet
  • Hana Japanese Market on U Street – smaller portions of sliced meats, limited selection, but will get the job done
  • For a premium, pay someone to do the shopping for you and save some hours. Grocery services like Weee! and Instacart deliver to DC. I just checked my Instacart and H Mart is listed!

Soup Bases

I recommend one of these three soup bases. If you can stand the heat, HaoRenJia doesn’t hold back. Once you get used to the heat, the deeply flavored broth will continue to impart flavor into your foods. With this soup base, I don’t use any sauce for the first half of the meal. Unfortunately they only have one flavor.

The massively popular HaiDiLao has hot pot bases for purchase. If you’re lucky to live near one, certain locations (e.g. Cupertino, CA) provide pickup and delivery services for soup bases from the restaurant. The soup base from the restaurant come in concentrated soup form versus the dry packets where water is added.

All these soup bases are vegetarian – the oil used is palm oil or soybean oil.

Quantity

You have the hot pot, the list of ingredients and a place to get them, and the number of people coming over. Here’s how to scale.

2 -3 people

• One tray of meat (~1.5 lbs)
• Fish balls (4 per person)
• One to two vegetables
• One noodle pack
• Two packs of mushrooms
• One tofu/bean product

4-5 people

• Two trays of meats (2-3 lbs)
• Fish balls (4 per person)
• Two vegetables
• One noodle pack
• Two packs of mushrooms
• One tofu/bean product

6-8 people

• Two and a half trays of meats (2-3 lbs). I’ll include one fish fillet sliced sashimi style on the diagonal.
• Fish balls (4 per person)
• Two vegetables
• One noodle pack
• Three packs of mushrooms
• Two tofu/bean product

9+

• Three to four trays of meats (4-5 lbs)
• Fish balls (4 per person)
• Two to three vegetables
• One noodle pack
• Three to four packs of mushrooms
• Two to three tofu/bean product

Sauce recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 part peanut butter (either smooth or chunky will work)
• 1 part Bullhead Chinese BBQ sauce
• One third to half part part Soy sauce
• Drizzle of Sesame oil
• Cilantro
• Optional: fish sauce & shaoxing cooking wine

Directions

1. Mix equal parts peanut butter and the Bullhead BBQ sauce. Mix well before adding the other ingredients to start thinning out that peanut butter.
2. Add in the soy sauce and sesame oil. Add optional fish sauce and/or shaoxing cooking wine.
3. Taste. Too much peanut butter? Add BBQ sauce. Not salty enough? More soy sauce. More funk? Fish sauce. You get the idea.
4. Finely chop cilantro and put in separate bowl. There are some unfortunate people in this world that don’t like cilantro.