Chongqing Hotpot

Chongqing hotpot is widely regarded as the original mala hotpot format, predating the more accessible Chengdu version that has become the national standard. The distinction matters to Chongqing people with some intensity.

The base broth is built on rendered beef tallow (niú yóu) — a key difference from vegetable-oil versions — combined with Pixian doubanjiang, dried Erjingtiao and Chaotian chillies, Sichuan peppercorn (in quantities that produce sustained mala numbing), dried spices, ginger, garlic and Shaoxing wine. The tallow imparts a richness and clinging quality that coats each ingredient as it leaves the pot. The colour is a dark arterial red. The spice level at a traditional Chongqing hotpot is calibrated for tolerance built up over years — first-time visitors are advised to select the medium or reduced-spice (wēi là) option.

The format is communal: a single cauldron embedded in the table centre sits over a gas burner at a rolling boil. Raw ingredients are ordered from a menu or selected from a display: thinly sliced beef and mutton (the thinnest cuts cook in 10–15 seconds), duck intestine (blanched for 7 seconds, pulled immediately), lotus root, wood-ear mushroom, quail eggs, frozen tofu (which absorbs the broth as it thaws), tripe, brain, and various vegetables and noodles as finishing courses. Each item cooks briefly and is dipped in a small personal bowl of sesame paste and minced garlic before eating — the cool, fatty sesame paste partly counters the heat of the broth.

Chongqing hotpot restaurants are open late and typically loud. The city's topography — its humidity, hill-climbing and damp winters — is frequently offered as the physiological explanation for why the population developed an appetite for this level of mala.