Our Story
Hot Pot 101 started with a simple, recurring scene: friends sitting down at a Chinese hot pot restaurant, staring at a 100-item menu, and having no idea what 毛肚 (maodu), 黄喉 (huanghou), or 虾滑 (xia hua) were — or how long to cook them, or which broth to pick.
Hot pot has a reputation for being intimidating, when it's actually one of the most beginner-friendly meals in the world — once someone explains the rules. So we built the guide we wished existed: everything about Chinese hot pot in plain English, with exact numbers instead of vague advice.
What You'll Find Here
- Ingredient Encyclopedia — 30+ ingredients with Chinese names, pinyin, flavor, texture and exact cooking times.
- Broth Guides — all 8 broth families explained, from Sichuan mala to coconut chicken.
- Regional Styles — what makes Sichuan, Chongqing, Chaoshan, Beijing, Yunnan, Cantonese, Hainanese and tomato hot pot different.
- Step-by-Step Guides — equipment, shopping lists, dipping sauce formulas and cooking order.
- Free AI Tools — decode any menu item, build a shopping list with quantities and calories, and find your hot pot style.
Who's Behind Hot Pot 101
Hot Pot 101 is written and edited by Tim Fang, the site's founder. Tim is Chinese and a lifelong hot pot devotee: he has eaten his way through several hundred hot pot restaurants, big and small, in cities across China — from Chongqing tallow-broth joints to Beijing copper pots and Chaoshan beef shops.
These days his focus has moved from the restaurant table to his own kitchen: working out how to recreate those flavors at home, with ingredients you can actually buy outside China. Every guide on this site comes out of that work — researched from Chinese-language sources, checked against published food-safety guidance, and reviewed by Tim before it goes live.
His goal is simple: that you get to enjoy the same thing he does — a bubbling pot on your own table, made by you, that tastes as good as the real thing. Questions, corrections and your own hot pot stories go straight to him at [email protected].
How We Work
Cooking times, quantities and technique come from Chinese-language sources, published hot pot restaurant practices, and structured cross-referencing across authoritative food safety guidance. When sources disagree — as they often do about maodu timing — we say so and explain both sides.
Our AI tools (Ingredient Decoder, Can I Hot Pot It?, Hot Pot Builder) use a combination of our own curated ingredient database and large language models. Structured database fields take precedence over AI-generated answers for safety-critical information such as cooking temperatures, doneness cues, and allergen notes.
Editorial & Affiliate Policy
Hot Pot 101 is independent. We currently have no affiliate links, sponsored posts or paid placements, so no merchant influences what we recommend. We did not physically test every product; shopping pages are clearly disclosed as buying guides rather than hands-on reviews. Details are in our Affiliate Disclosure.
Get in Touch
Found an error? Want us to cover an ingredient we missed? We read everything. Reach us at [email protected] or use our contact page.