Chongqing hot pot

Chongqing hot pot is a Chinese communal dish in which diners cook meat, tofu, mushrooms and vegetables at the table in a simmering pot of spiced broth. It originated in the 1920s in the Jiangbei district of Chongqing, where wharf laborers cooked inexpensive cuts of meat in a spiced broth, and by 1934 a Chongqing restaurant had turned it into a refined restaurant dish. Its defining flavor, called mala, combines the numbing sensation of Sichuan peppercorns with the heat of dried chilies, carried in a red broth made with beef tallow and spices such as bay leaf, clove and cinnamon. Diners typically dip cooked items in sesame oil and garlic sauce to balance the heat. The dish remains central to Chongqing's food culture, with the city counting nearly 27,000 hot pot restaurants in 2019. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/