Here’s a local experience you might not know about that is super common in Shanghai: Beijing Hot Pot. I tried my first Hot Pot ever at one of the best quality and local Hot Pot restaurants in the French Concession at Yanji Old Beijing Hot Pot.
Yes, we were in the French Concession, yes we were surrounded by international cuisine, but my mom and I wanted Chinese food. We were in Shanghai, but finding real, local Chinese food near the expat community of Hengshan Road seemed imposssible. Luckily, Hengshan Road intersected with Wulumqui Middle Road and led us down a street of local Chinese restaurants. One in particular caught our eye, Yanji Old Beijing Hot Pot.
My mom and I were walking down the street when a small restaurant with about 6 tables caught our eye. Mounted on each individual table was a cone-shaped pot filled with boiling broth heated by a portable gas burner. Happy looking locals were plunging into the hot pots with their chopsticks. Not one sign was in English and not one expat was in the restaurant, as much as we wanted to, eating here would be hard. Even the people who worked there didn’t speak English, this was as local as we wanted it to get.
As we began to turn away, an Asian man started to wave his hands at us, gesticulating for us to come inside. He could tell we looked confused and said, “It’s really good, it’s full of locals, I highly recommend it. Come in, come in.” Now usually, I wouldn’t take the word of a stranger, but for some reason my mom and I thought this man looked trustworthy so walked in and took a seat behind him.
What is Hot Pot?
To our surprise, he was an Asian man who spent some of his life working and living in America, so spoke English. He began to explain to us what Hot pot was. Hot pot is renown in Beijing, although it originated in Mongolia. It is said that Mongols were called to battle back in the day and the cook realized he didn’t have time to roast the meat. He decided to throw the raw mutton in a cauldron of boiling water and hence Hot pot was born.
Sanitation
The man explained to us that where you eat Hot pot is really important. Many foreigners get sick when they eat Hot pot because we are eating raw vegetables and dipping meat into boiling water that might have germs our stomachs are not used to. He assured us that this was one of the cleanest and best places for foreigners to enjoy Hot pot, even if none of the locals spoke English! We trusted him and hoped for the best that we would not leave with food poisoning.
How to eat Hot Pot
Unable to read the menu, my mom and I had the kind gentleman translate for us and help us order. As the broth bubbled, my mom and I took turns dropping finely shaved pieces of beef and mutton, cabbage, mushrooms with our chopsticks. The top of the cone was open to release steam. Locals next to us were placing what looked like pita bread on top of the steam to heat up the bread before eating as a side dish. When the vegetables and meat were cooked, we rolled it around in sesame paste with your choice of vegetables and down it with beer. I didn’t have the beer since it was lunch, but I’ll definitely try it next time.
Hot pot is an experience that I did not have on my Shanghai bucket list, nor was I aware of this super cool and affordable experience! We left super content and happy that we had discovered this famous Chinese cuisine. It is usually enjoyed during the winter months, but true aficionados enjoy it in the summer as well. I highly recommend you stop by Yanji Old Beijing Hot Pot. The meat was top quality, the food was delicious, the ambiance was as local as it gets, and we didn’t get any stomach bugs from eating here. The restaurant was clean and of high-quality.
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