As soon as winter arrives, the smell of spicy hot pot fills the streets. If it happens to snow a little and you dash into a small street-side spicy hot pot restaurant, cold all over, and have a bowl of spicy hot pot full of savory sauce, you'll suddenly feel that your otherwise sloppy life seems to be brimming with meaning again.

In fact, even when it's not winter, throughout the four seasons of the year, the spicy hot pots along the street flaunt their presence, staking out their territory. This unremarkable and plain-looking food, which is neither exactly a dish nor a proper soup and has a rather floating and absurd appearance, doesn't play by the rules. With a sort of wild-card approach that can defeat experienced masters, it has single-handedly boiled up a vast "water-boiled" world. What's more, it has even created a myth and a phenomenon in the food world.

When exactly did this non-mainstream delicacy in the "water-boiled dish" category first appear on people's tables? And when did it start showing up frequently in the public eye? How did this vast "water-boiled" world come into being step by step... Don't worry, let's read on!

When Spicy Hot Pot Meets the Northeasterners

Although the birthplace of spicy hot pot isn't in the Northeast, it's the Northeastern big brothers who have built its "water-boiled" realm.

There is an extremely fascinating phenomenon in the food world: the popularity of a particular food is seldom initiated by the locals. For example, beef noodle restaurants are all over the streets, and although they all bear the words "Lanzhou, China", most of them have thrived in the hands of people from Qinghai. The beef noodles floating around the country are basically different from the authentic Lanzhou beef noodles; another example is the Chengdu cuisine seen everywhere on the street. Although they all carry the "Chengdu" signboard, most of them were created by people from Chongqing. There are countless such examples in the food world.

According to the origin record of spicy hot pot, its production principle is basically the same as that of Chongqing hot pot. It was invented by local fishermen and boat trackers on the banks of the Yangtze River in the southwest region. In those days, the boat trackers in Leshan, Sichuan, were exhausted from work and lived a hard life. They didn't have enough time to sit leisurely by the water and enjoy a meal like having a picnic. When hunger struck unbearably, a group of them would gather around, set up a pot, gather some firewood to make a fire and boil water. They made do with whatever food was available, such as fish, shrimp, waterweeds, etc., and boiled everything that could be eaten. If the taste wasn't strong enough, they added chili peppers and Chinese prickly ash, and ate heartily, feeling warm. All kinds of miscellaneous food could fill their stomachs, and the Chinese prickly ash and chili peppers could drive away the damp and cold from their bodies. Most importantly, it was really satisfying and comfortable to eat. Thus, this disorderly food spread widely.

When this spicy and numbing food met the Northeasterners, it was destined to stage a legend. When it comes to the pursuit of a wonderful food life, never doubt the amazing creativity of the Northeastern people. The creativity of the Northeastern people in food is not only reflected in barbecuing but also in the Northeast 乱炖 (hodgepodge stew). Even white meat can be stewed with pickled Chinese cabbage, and blood sausage can be boiled. Stewing the spicy hot pot from Sichuan is just a piece of cake! Essentially, the living standards of the gold rushers who made their way to the Northeast in those days were basically on the same level as those of the boat trackers by the water. The boat trackers could boil everything together, and the Northeastern men could stew all kinds of things together. Therefore, when these two kinds of food with similar natures met in the hands of modern Northeasterners, they suddenly unleashed a new world of magic.

Thus, under the amazing innovation of the Northeasterners, the new version of spicy hot pot, like the baths in the Northeast, rippled through the bustling city.

Everything Can Be in Spicy Hot Pot

This pot of spicy hot pot is like the mountains and rivers under heaven, all-encompassing. Almost nothing cannot be boiled in it.

To make a vivid comparison, the spicy hot pot base is like a public square. Whether it's meat or vegetarian, whether it's fishy, smelly, or muttony, all kinds of ingredients, regardless of their rank, social status, size, are all pressed equally into the boiling thick soup to receive the baptism of the soup color. They huddle together, forming a colorful water-boiled world.

Every kind of food has its natural flavor and character. Some are stubborn, some are warm, some are aloof, some are kind, some are sour, and some are sweet. When various ingredients gather together, the cabbage coming from the south and the passers-by going north, through continuous soaking and boiling, they blend with each other while maintaining their independent personalities and also absorb the essence of various flavors. Precisely through such in-depth baptism, the spicy hot pot is infused with an infinite sense of earthly life. This sense of earthly life is the soul of the spicy hot pot and the sharp weapon that enables it to travel unimpeded across the country.

The Water-Boiled Philosophy Behind Spicy Hot Pot

After Suiren invented drilling wood to make fire, the ancient Chinese ancestors learned to cook food with fire. Later, with the invention of earthenware pots by the Yellow Emperor, the ancestors learned to steam and boil food with water. From the perspective of the progress of human food acquisition, the evolution from fire-cooked to water-boiled food was a food revolution, and this dietary revolution began as early as the Yellow Emperor era five thousand years ago. Therefore, water-boiled food obviously has a profound historical and cultural heritage.

When spicy hot pot boils all kinds of food together in one go, it coincides with the traditional Chinese theory of "harmonizing the five flavors", namely sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, and salty. Each flavor permeates into it, and with the lingering fragrance left by various ingredients in the pot, all these flavors mix to form a grand chorus of tastes. Therefore, the reason why spicy hot pot can be widely accepted has certain philosophical principles, which is the foundation for its wide acceptance.

The reason why food like spicy hot pot can spread and become popular among today's young generation also lies in its embodiment of the value of equality.

On the one hand, in one pot, all the ingredients are equal. They all share the base equally, without distinction, without hierarchy of noble or humble, and without the concept of superiors and subordinates, which doesn't cause psychological pressure on diners. On the other hand, for those who eat it, there is no need to sit upright and solemn. Therefore, in essence, spicy hot pot fully embodies the popular philosophy of respecting equality and human nature. So, it can be widely accepted, obviously conforming to the social grammar and psychological demands of modern urban people.

At the same time, spicy hot pot is a subversive deconstruction of traditional luxurious feasts and formal dinners.

Today's feasts are all too formal. The excessive attention to form and ceremony inescapably restricts and harms the sense of freedom of diners, especially the young diners. Undoubtedly, spicy hot pot is a rebellious deconstruction of traditional formal dinners. If you say it's a dish, its chaotic and sloppy appearance subverts the established image of orthodox dishes; if you say it's not a dish, it has rich varieties, diverse patterns, and is full of flavor. In one bowl, you can taste the world of thousands of dishes. And most importantly, this bowl of food is up to you to decide. Spicy hot pot is a world of food, and isn't it also a world of human affairs?