IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE! DIY HOT POT
- gracilianca
- Sep 13, 2021
- 7 min read
YEGers, it’s been a hot minute since our last review - but never fear, our newest entry in our Pandemic Plates series is here! Since a certain Miss ‘Rona came on the scene, we’ve been on a mission to find the best dining in experience that our city has to offer. Up until now, our high-stakes investigation has focused on DIY meal kits from local restaurants that we can whip up at home - but this time, we’re trying something a bit out of the box - or you could say, out of the pot! For this entry, we’ll be reviewing different DIY hot pot kits to see if we can find ones that replicate the hot pot dining-in experience that we’ve been missing!
Location: All of our hot pot kits were purchased from T&T Supermarket. There are 3 locations in Edmonton: 9450 - 137 Ave (in North Town Centre), 3451 Calgary Trail NW (South side), and 8882 - 170 Street (in West Edmonton Mall). Note that you may also be able to find these kits in Asian grocery stores such as H-Mart as well!
Items on the menu: The hot pot kits we tried were:
Haidilao Beef Self-Heating Hot Pot (Spicy flavour) for $14.99
Haidilao Beef Self-Heating Hot Pot (Tomato flavour) for $ 14.99
Hackers Self-Heating Sichuan BBQ Spicy Tilapia fillet with Roasted Vegetables for $7.99
Luo Ba Wang Self-Heating Hot Pot with Rice Noodle (snail flavour) for $7.99
Tell me more: Hot pot (literally “fire pot”, or 火锅 in Chinese) is a way of cooking that involves adding fresh ingredients (including meats, vegetables and noodles) to a simmering pot of flavourful broth or stock boiling away right at the dining table, then eaten with various dipping sauces. Concept-wise, hot pot is similar to savoury fondue, but with tasty soup in the place of a cheese sauce or hot oil! Its history dates back over 1000 years, though its not without some minor controversy - some indicate the tradition of hot pot came from Mongol warriors who ate around a pot over fire outside to keep warm, while eating at the same time, while others claim it was invented in Chongqing by sailors and porters wanting a simple way to cook. No matter how it originated, hot pot is a delicious way to bring people together over a communal eating experience!
Hot pot can be enjoyed in restaurants and at home - however, though rewarding, putting together an at-home hot pot meal can be time consuming, and Miss ‘Rona has certainly thrown a wrench in communal dining this year! In the interests of finding a quick, easy and social-distancing friendly way to enjoy hot pot, Gracilianca set out to try several different DIY hot pot kits to see if these live up to the experience we all know and love!
So how was it? Not much to say here - these kits were easy to find at our local T&T in the noodle aisle. We enjoyed our hot pot kits outdoors, but as long as you have a bit of space (each kit produces steam from the top of the container, due to activation of the included heat packs) you can have them inside without issue. The only thing we needed to add to our kits was water, though some kits made it a point to ask that you only use cool water (and avoid adding hot water to the heat pack). If you pick one of these up, make sure you follow the instructions!
For our rankings, we’ll be looking at a few categories: preparation, taste, presentation, and value!
PREPARATION:
B: 4.75/5 - I had the Luo Ba Wang Self-Heating Hot Pot with Rice Noodle (snail flavour). It was fairly easy to prepare with the instructions provided. Though there are several small individual packages to open with the various ingredients, which do take some time to open. It also generates a lot of packaging to deal with afterwards. The other thing to note is that you need to have cold water to activate the self heating pack. The tilapia was also very straightforward to prepare with the instructions provided.
C: 5/5 - I had the “Haidilao Beef Self-Heating Hot Pot (Spicy)” and this was one of the easiest preparation methods I’ve encountered! It was as easy as cooking instant noodles! The instructions were easy to follow and luckily for Gracilia, there were English instructions to follow! I had no complaints here! Note: this would be a great way to cook some hot foods when camping.. Or if you want a hot lunch with minimal preparation - although it does take some time to prepare! After adding the heating packet, it takes about 15 minutes in total to cook.
G: 4.5/5 - I tried the “Haidilao Beef Self-Heating Hot Pot (Tomato)”, which was pretty easy to assemble. Essentially, I emptied all the ingredients into the top plastic tray, added water to the maximum fill line in the top tray, added cold water to the fill line in the black container before adding the heating packet, and then closed the lid and let it do its thing. I liked that the instructions were clear and it was easy to find the fill lines in the packaging - this would be an easy food option to take travelling/camping. Note that once you activate the heating packet, it starts heating up pretty quickly, so move fast!
TASTE:
B: 4/5 - I enjoyed the flavour and the variety of ingredients! It had a strong, intense flavour but not too spicy or overpowering. In particular, I liked the combination of the tofu with the type of vegetables. The noodles also complemented the rest of the ingredients well and soaked up the sauce nicely.
3.75/5 - The tilapia was also good and really impressive for an instant fish item! Those are hard to swim by. It was spicy but I personally do enjoy spicy food. Though the amount of oil in it combined with the spice level was a tad too much and there were also lots of little bones.
C: 3.5/5 - OK, so I have a confession. I got the “Haidilao Beef Self-Heating Hot Pot (Spicy)” because I like to think that I have an above average spice tolerance, but I quickly found out that this is VERY SPICY. I honestly could not concentrate much on the taste anymore after a while, because the spice overwhelmed everything. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have added the entire contents of the spicy seasoning (good thing to note if you do not have a super high spice tolerance!) But other than the overwhelming spice, I was pleased with the ingredients: there were vermicelli noodles, beef, lotus root, wood ear, kelp, and bamboo shoots! There was a variety of foods to munch on.
4/5 -The Spicy Tilapia hot pot was also quite pleasing as well. Honestly, after my Haidilao Spicy hot pot, the spice of the Tilapia hot pot was a welcome reprieve! It came with some pickled vegetables which added a nice touch. It was interesting to have an entire fish ready to eat in less than 20 minutes with minimal preparation required! One thing to note though, the fish does have lots of bones, so if you’re not used to that, then I wouldn’t recommend getting this hot pot.
G: 3.75/5 - For the “Haidilao Beef Self-Heating Hot Pot (Tomato)” - At first I wondered about the tomato flavour, and how that would taste with all the other ingredients in this box - however, it wasn’t bad at all! This kit contained vermicelli, mixed pickled vegetables, a piece of beef, and tomato-flavoured hot pot seasoning. While there was a tomato-y taste (I know I’m not winning any Pulitzers for my descriptions) it wasn’t super prominent. For anyone looking for a non-spicy option, I’d recommend it! One thing I didn’t quite love was the amount of oil in the final product (though it’s not a health food by any stretch) and I thought it could’ve used just a bit more flavour overall.
For the “Hackers Self-Heating Sichuan BBQ Spicy Tilapia” hot pot - as a spice wimp, this definitely was too spicy for me! I lasted only a couple bites - but I’m not going to rate this since I know my spice intolerance would severely impact my judgement.
PRESENTATION:
B: 4 /5 - I put it all together so I like to think I did a pretty good job and it looked pretty appetizing. Jokes aside it was all packaged well and compact. I wish there were a tad less individual packages and they just had one large package with all the ingredients. I think that would make me inclined to repurchase.
C: 4.5/5 - Everything was packaged really nicely (including the cutlery - it came with chopsticks and a spoon!), and the final presentation looked appetizing (not to mention hot.. literally!) It is a little messy though with all the sauces, so I wouldn’t wear your Sunday best while preparing and eating this! (Disclaimer: I did end up getting some food on my shirt! But nothing that some Tide To Go can’t fix!)
G: 4/5 - Keeping it simple here - I thought both hot pot dishes I tried looked pretty legit!
VALUE:
B: 4/5 - Honestly for $7.99, it was a decent meal. It was about half the price of the other hot pots! But there was no meat so that’s something to consider from the value perspective. It was a good size and filling enough for a meal.
C: 3.75/5 - I mean, I always struggle with this rating because I always want everything to be cheaper than it is…. I wear my frugality with pride! That being said though, I think $14.99 for my Beef Spicy hot pot is a decent price. It did come with a good amount of meat and noodles, and kept me VERY full afterwards! And going out for hot pot would be around that price too. I do acknowledge that providing the heater pack and all the accessories (bowls, cutlery, individual packaging of all the ingredients) does cost money, so all in all, it is not a bad price for what you get! The fish tilapia, considering the amount of food we got, was also a good deal as well!
G: 3.75/5 - At first I thought this was a bit on the expensive side for an “instant” meal, but it kept me very full and the convenience factor can’t be beat! So while this isn’t the cheapest meal option ever, I still think it has a pretty decent value factor. Bonus - utensils (chopsticks, etc.) were included!
Disclaimer: This review is not affiliated with or sponsored by Haidilao, Luo Ba Wang, Hackers, or T&T Supermarket - views expressed are solely our opinions!
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