The Tamesis
To celebrate Chinese New Year, chef and cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz reflects on celebrating her favorite holiday with fondue in an adapted excerpt from her new book, Everybody’s Hot Pot: Create the ultimate meal for party feasts, Published by Artisan Books.
Growing up in San Diego, I counted down the days to the start of Chinese New Year because it meant we would eat hot pot. As the cooler months slowly roll by here in balmy San Diego, I’m craving “real” weather – pot weather. In La Jolla, the closest we get is the thick, moist fog that creeps toward the coast most mornings, or the wet, long nights that leave our front lawns covered in dew.
As the Chinese New Year is approaching, one thing is certain in our family: hot pot will be out. Hot pot is an ancient cooking method in which bite-sized portions of fresh vegetables, meats, seafood and tofu are quickly cooked in broth at a communal table. It’s the strongest tradition in our family, stronger than Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, and Mother’s Day combined. My love for hot pot grows exponentially every year as I introduce it to new people. Love expands, circles widen, traditions shift.
My mother, Li Huai, a Beijing-born artist, and my father, Paul Picovich, a New England-born historian of Chinese film, cooked me their home-cooked Chinese dishes. When I was a kid, my mom cooked almost all of our meals, preparing simple and delicious things like soy sauce chicken drumsticks and Lichang Fried rice; tender tomato wedges tossed in scrambled eggs and chilli; whole steamed seabass stuffed with scallions and served with tempeh, which is oily and shiny.
Photo: Courtesy of Natasha Pikovic
But my favorite is hot pot because it means the party is coming. As an only child, the anticipation for the upcoming hotpot night was exciting. I would sit at our long dining room table, finding a seat inches from the saucepan on the exposed, flickering flame of the small camp stove. Endless platters unfolded before me: braided bundles of translucent noodles, frilly mushrooms and cabbage, thin slices of raw lamb, pork and beef, plus my personal dipping bowl, slathered in a creamy, nutty white tahini sauce as thick as a smoothie.
