I am originally from Los Angeles, and I will say that the one thing that I really miss from home is the food. When I moved here to Fullerton, I discovered that there was a lack of authentic Asian food places. Fortunately, my roommate was an excellent cook. I remembered that it was one of our best friend’s birthday, and we hosted a hot pot for him at our apartment. Although preparations do take a little time, there is really no rocket science behind it, and it is nearly impossible to mess up! It is actually a lot easier than it sounds. The simple version is that you have a portable gas stove in the middle with a pot of boiling broth, and you dump whatever food you want to eat into the pot and start eating. In addition, being in college, this is really a breath of fresh air because it is both delicious and healthy at the same time.
For those of you that do not know what hot pot is here is a link from NPR that might give you a better sense of what it is.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7502906
It’s really an eclectic range of foods you can put in the hot pot, and there are many styles. For simplicity sake, I do not really have a specific “style”, but here are some of my personal favorites that I like to add:
Shrimp, Thinly sliced beef, Oysters, Clams, Tofu, Udon, Chinese Noodles, Squid, Lettuce, Squid balls, Meat balls, Mushrooms. Imitation crab sticks, Kamaboko(as seen below).
Things You Need:
You will need a portable gas stove, a giant pot, cans of chicken broth, a can of Asian Barbecue sauce (as seen below), and the foods that I listed above, and then some at your own digression.
Directions:
1. Prepare all foods such as opening, washing, and cutting
2. Separate food and place into a bowl
3. Pour Asian BBQ sauce into a small bowl to dip. (One for each person)
4. Set up portable gas stove.
5. Fill the pot with cans of chicken broth till about 3/4’s the way up.
6. Turn on stove and place pot on top of it
7. Wait for broth to heat up, and start placing food into the pot
8. When you feel that food is cooked to your standard, dig in, dip it into the sauce and start eating
All these foods can be found at your local Asian market. If you are in Fullerton, there is a 99 Ranch Market that you can find all these ingredients. Here are the directions from Cal State Fullerton:
California State University Fullerton
800 North State College Boulevard
Fullerton, CA 92831
(657) 278-2011
1. Head east on Gymnasium Campus Dr toward Folino Dr
0.2 mi
2. Turn right at Folino Dr
0.4 mi
3. Turn left at Nutwood Ave
495 ft
4. Turn right to merge onto CA-57 S
1.6 mi
5. Take exit 5B to merge onto CA-91 W/Riverside Fwy toward Los Angeles
3.9 mi
6. Take exit 27 for Euclid St
0.2 mi
7. Turn left at Euclid St
Destination will be on the right
0.9 mi
651 Euclid St
Anaheim, CA 92801
