1 - What's this ?????

Huo guo, or Chinese Hot Pot, is a culinary marvel with many common traits with our own hotpots, though it sometimes verges on the subdued food fight. The main idea's pretty simple : sitting in the middle of the table, you have a wok (chinese cooking pot), in which is bubbling a broth of varying composition, depending on who prepared it and where the huo guo's being served. Around the table, people equipped with bowls and chopsticks.

Once the wok's contents are boiling, diners use them to cook various ingredients : meat slices, vegetables, seafood, rice noodles, and so on... by holding them in the boiling broth with their chopsticks...in China. Here, people mostly use special little forks, or small wire-mesh nets. Once the selected piece's cooked, it's removed from the broth and dipped in a bowl of flavoured oil (black sesame oil, garlic, sodium glutamate, also often oyster sauce or black rice vinegar), in order to remove the excess pepper if it's a Sichuan style hot pot, and mainly to add a few more nice flavours.

2 - Where does it come from ?????

Huoguo comes from Mongolia. There are a few legends about how it was invented, they are sometimes printed on the back of huoguo liao (the spices packages with which the huoguo broth is prepared). Originally a poor man's dish brought in the wake of the Mongolian invasion of China and the subsequent Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Unlike cheese, which Chinese people never could develop a taste for, and was forgotten as soon as the last Yuan emperor was kicked all the way back to Mongolia, hotpot stayed. In the north of China, it's a bland and pretty tasteless dish. However, coming down south to Sichuan turned it into the culinary marvel we can enjoy now.
The essential part in a huoguo is the broth. Usually made from a few bones and vegetables, a bit like the French pot au feu, it gained in Sichuan all the wonderful spices that province is famous for, especially the prickly ash (hua jiao) and a locally grown pepper (hai jiao) which is of unrivalled potency. Even now, best huoguo is made in Sichuan, and the world's huoguo capital is Chongqing. It's however possible to have a good huoguo everywhere else in China, if you're lucky enough to find a good Sichuanese restaurant with a chef who knows his job. Additionnally, most Chinese restaurants worldwide have hotpot on the menu, but unfortunately, it's most of the times prepared by a cook from regions quite far from Sichuan. The result usually ends up as something like a Swedish cook's idea of a chili con carne.....

3 - Why does l'Annexe sell huoguo ?????

In July 2002, I went for the first time to Chengdu and met the woman I married shortly afterwards. In the months leading up to this crucial event, we had spent a lot of time romancing each other online, and in some of the conversations, Xiaoling had mentioned 火锅 as her favourite meal. I first thought I would try that in Valenciennes before going to China, but she told me to wait, as she wasn't sure of what the Valenciennes version could be like, and didn't want me to be disappointed.

So I followed her advice and waited until I got to China. There, in Xiaoling's neighbourhood, I first was intrigued by all the strange smells hanging in the air, coming from crowded restaurants in which people seemed to be huddled around a smoking pot in the middle of their table. After a couple of days to get over the jet lag and to get to know each other on a closer basis, Xiaoling took me to her hometown of Deyang where I met her parents and her family friends, and of course had my first encounter with huoguo...
As I'm not Chinese born and bred, they were afraid that I couldn't stomach such violently spicy food, so they were considerate enough to first order a "mandarin ducks" wok, which is split in the middle so that there are two broths cooking in the same pot, one bland and one spicy. Much to their surprise, after a few trys from both sides of the wok, I just ignored the bland side and started enjoying this divine arson of a meal.

The rest of my first stay in China was quite enjoyable huoguo-wise, and I returned to France carrying a suitcase full of huoguo liao, and with a wedding planned for the next spring.
Inb the months before my next trip to China, I started working on my huoguo cooking skills, and introduced this wonder to all my friends. After a few trials, I was able to prepare something very satisfactory, which helped a lot when I was getting homesick.
Then came the wedding, and Xiaoling moved to France with me. We made it a point to try as many restaurants as possible to see if there was one able to provide us with a good huoguo. But as we couldn't find any, I decided to start selling huoguo myself instead, as there was no competition. My friends from l'Etoile d'Or gave me some equipment that my customers feel very grateful for (the small wire-mesh nets !!!), and with a bit of research , I was able to procure most of what I needed locally (thanks to Julie and a few others !). Some stuff can only be found in Sichuan, but I'm fortunate enough to have a wonderful mother-in-law who keeps me well stocked in such products.
I was ready to become a huoguo professionnal, and in september 2003, l'Annexe sold its first huoguo. I started building a special table shortly afterwards, as it's impossible to get an imported one here, specialized shops just don't carry that kind of products.
 
4 - Philippe, can you have one ready for us this evening ?

I now serve this dish, preferably with prior reservation, as I prefer working mosty with fresh ingredients, rather than using frozen stuff. That's the Jean Pierre Coffe in me (I'd really like to have him try my huo guo one day). I also sometimes make special edition huo guo, like last year on New Year's Eve, where I had the idea to use mostly stuff that's served in end of year feast (the most delicious thing we tried that night were the snails. Truly smashing !), or like on my last birthday, where I tried to think a bit bigger :-).

BEFORE :



AFTER :