Sichuan Hotpot

Sichuan hot pot is one of China's great culinary experiences and eating it in Chengdu, its home city, is definitively different from anywhere else. A communal pot of boiling broth — in Chengdu typically a rich tallow-based stock loaded with dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns — sits at the centre of the table. Raw ingredients (thinly sliced meat, vegetables, tofu, offal) are cooked in the broth and eaten with sesame oil dipping sauce. The experience is social, slow, and intensely flavoured.