Read About Guangzhou Hot Pot!
WINTER has arrived and it’s hit Guangzhou real hard these days,
am I right?!?
Since moving to China I’ve tried many different types of foods. Zongzi, Mooncakes, Dim Sum and my favorite~ HOT POT!!!
We don’t have ANYTHING like hot pot in the states! The first time I tried out this treasured delicacy I was amazed at how you had to cook your own meat in the large pot of spiciness placed at the center of table!! It was such a treat and I had tasted flavors I had never even dreamed of!
However, over the years, my body just can’t take the spiciness of hot pot anymore 🙁 🙁 🙁 (I know there are the non-spicy hot pots you can choose from as well but I feel it doesn’t count as the authentic Sichuan spicy hot pot!!). I get so excited when I go to eat hot pot with my friends and laugh and share our recent shenanigans. The spiciness tastes oh so good as it enters my body! But then…a few hours later…I just feel SO FULL and as if the spiciness has overtaken my entire being. Also I seem to feel all of the oil from the hot pot get into my skin and I always tend to get breakouts right after eating my beloved hotpot cuisine! OH WHY?!?! WHY DO THIS TO ME HOT POT KING?! There must be a kind of hot pot that doesn’t make me feel so bloated afterwards or harm my skin right?!?!
WELL…THERE IS…AND
we found it right in our own neighborhood of Guangzhou…
it’s name is WUMIZHOU!!!
Wumizhou is a Guangzhou specialty porridge hot pot!!
What is so special and nutritious about a porridge hot pot you might ask?! Well, instead of cooking the meats in a super oily and spicy broth as we would in most Sichuan Hot pots, we cook the meats in a hot pot made from porridge!! BUT, it’s not the super thick with rice granular porridge that you are thinking about~ it’s a special 20 year in the making liquified porridge that has kept all the nutrients and left you with a pure and healthy base to cook your hot pot meats in!!
Let me tell you…when my friend first took me to this restaurant, I was so confused by what I was eating. Was it porridge? Was it hot pot? How could it be both?!? But then he explained to me how this type of hot pot is a lot healthier than the regular hot pot and perfect for the cold winter months in GZ. And just like that~ I was hooked!! I wanted to go to this restaurant with all my Chinese friends, but to my surprise…almost all of them didn’t even know it existed!! That’s when I knew I had found a treasure and had to come back here to share this amazing restaurant with you all!! Heheheh!
Since Ana is out of GZ these days and in her beautiful homeland of Colombia, today DisfruLife went to eat Wumizhou with our good friend Susana! Susana is Colombian, like Ana, and had never tried ANY type of hot pot before so what better way to have her experience hot pot than with us at Guangzhou’s best kept secret!!
As we entered the restaurant there was a bar of various sauce ingredients that we can choose from to make our own little tasty concoction! You can choose from soy sauce, garlic, chili, ginger, green onions, bbq sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and many more!! I like to make my sauce with a base of soy sauce then add a bit of garlic, chili and bbq sauce~ IT TASTE SO GOOD and is the PERFECT partner to our hot pot!! 😀
We were able to book a private room in the restaurant, which has no minimum amount of food needed for purchase, yay! You just need to make sure to call a few days before to book it for your group of people! I definitely recommend getting the private room so you can be as loud or as quiet as you want! Haha!
The Chef of Wumizhou was kind enough to explain to us Laowai’s how this whole process of making the porridge came into being! He also shared the order in which you should could your food so to get the best taste and exprience! Thank you so much Chef Long for your welcome and tips and tricks to eating this porridge like a boss!!
HOW TO EAT PORRIDGE HOT POT
STEP 1:
SEAFOOD
The chef told us we should start with the seafood, which is just fine for us!! We ordered some delicious shrimp and the waiter cooked it for us (every table is given a waiter to cook your meats for you. Yay!) It took around 2-3 minutes to cook then we began the tasting. We de-skinned the shrimps, dipped it in our *magical* sauce, and took a bite! The taste was SO GOOD! The shrimp was super fresh and I felt like I was eating something so pure and healthy! We couldn’t get enough of these bad boys!!
STEP 2:
SLICED BEEF
The sliced beef came next! The meat came with some fat attached to it, which me and Susana are not used to. I know in China they enjoy eating the fat part of the meat but I really don’t enjoy it too much so we just took it off before we ate each piece. The meat was very nice! The chef said that it was hand cut by the restaurant themselves and so you can see the precision in each piece! It was super thin and each bite felt really fresh. Not bad!
STEP 3:
MEATBALL W/ MUSHROOM
After the beef came the meatballs! These meatballs were made from beef and mushroom. We had never tried a meatball mixed with pieces of mushroom inside so it was definitely a first!! The meatballs took around 3-4 minutes to cook and as you can see from the video, we were not too fond of the texture. The mushroom was a bit rough and gave the meatball a certain kind of crunch to it, but after a few bites I thought it wasn’t too bad! It wasn’t Susana’s sort of taste, but I think it was a nice experience to try a meatball that was different from the norm.
小吃 SNACK BREAK
LOTUS ROOT
Lotus root is a type of vegetable that is very common here in China. In both Susana and my country, this vegetable is nonexistent!! So to try it here in China was really an interesting experience! For me it was love at first bite! I just loved the texture and crispiness of it! Also how it would soak up all the juices it was cooked in. Lotus root is a lover I never knew I had!! Haha! This dish I specifically ordered because my previous times at this restaurant I would go with my Chinese friend who showed me something very interesting regarding this dish. He enjoyed fried lotus root but didn’t enjoy all the oil that it was cooked in, so what he would do is dip the lotus root in a cup of tea to get rid of the oil!! I thought this was so interesting and just had to share this little secret with you all! Dipping it into the tea doesn’t really change the taste, but it does get rid of A LOT of oil, so if you are craving for a fried dish but don’t want all the fatty oils, just do this next time!! You’re welcome!! 😉 haha!
STEP 4:
VEGETABLES
The chef then said that after the meats we should cook the vegetables in the porridge. We ordered some Chinese yams, corn and lettuce. Susana and I tried the Chinese yams, which have the same consistency as a potato and thought it was pretty good!! The yams are a bit softer than potatoes but still have that bit of crunch to them!
小吃 SNACK BREAK
BBQ Pork
This dish is definitely not the healthiest but it wouldn’t be a GZ restaurant without it!! Honey BBQ Pork, or “Chasiu” as the Cantonese say, is one of the most popular dishes in the Canton region. I’ve been eating Chasiu for many years, ever since I visited Hong Kong as a child, so I am definitely not new to this dish. I actually wasn’t that keen to even try the dish since I figured it would taste the same as all the other Chasiu’s I’ve had before, but for some reason it was calling my name. As I took a bite into this bbq pork, fire works of flavor went off on my tastebuds! The taste of this BBQ pork was PERFECT, SERIOUSLY PERFECT GUYS!! Each bite was so smooth and tasty, I couldn’t get enough of it!! So if you are a BBQ pork lover, I DEFINITELY recommend you to order this dish when you visit this restaurant!!
STEP 5:
Porridge w/ Dough bread
AT LAST! We reach our final destination! Haha! The chef explained to us how after the porridge has cooked all the various meats and vegetables, it is given a very great flavor and lots of great nutrients. THUS, we must eat the porridge with a side of traditional Guangzhou Dough bread!! We were given our bowls of simmered porridge with a piece of Dough bread on top and we were ready to try it out!! I know porridge is a VERY local GZ breakfast dish but I actually had never really tried it, so I was excited to give it a go! The first sip was pretty good, it really warmed you up, but it needed a bit more flavor for me! I added a bit of our magical sauce into it and it tasted really nice!! I then dipped the Dough bread inside of it and ate it up just like a local!! Yayyy!
Wow!! We had A LOT to eat looking back at all the dishes, however after eating it all I didn’t full super full or bloated like I usually do after a normal hot pot! I felt super light and refreshed, ready to take on the cold and run a 5k mile run!! (Haha just kidding on that last part!) But really, the meal was really tasty and I can’t believe the HOT POT gods answered my prayers and gave me this magical porridge hot pot right in my backyard!! THANK YOU!! Hehehehe
DisfruLife
discovering life together
我们一起成长吧