First Try at Lazy Hot Pot

I’d never even heard of “lazy hot pot” until recently. I saw a Hong Kong YouTuber called Slime try one on YouTube, and it got me itching to give it a shot.

I knew the principle was basically the same as some military ration I’d had before, but curiosity still won and I bought one to check it out.

So the way this thing works is just quicklime reacting with water to generate heat. That’s it. The only special part is that the plastic shell can take the high temperature.

Add water, heat for 15 minutes, and it’s ready.

Don’t get the wrong idea—there isn’t that much beef in there. I added that beef myself.

One thing worth mentioning: put something underneath when it’s heating, or you’ll burn your table.

And this is the sorry state it ends up in.

So the key question: does it taste good?

I thought about it…

No.

At best this thing is “hot pot soup base with veggies.” The meat inside is pitifully scarce—it only looked passable after I added my own beef—and the rest is just a bunch of lotus root, potato, chili, and Sichuan sweet potato noodles. Fish around a bit and there’s nothing left… As for the taste, aside from spicy, there’s not much else going on. Maybe it’s just my palate.

I heard Haidilao’s lazy hot pot is pretty good, but it’s too expensive. Can’t afford it. Guess I’ll wait for a rich friend to sponsor me.

Bottom line: this thing isn’t worth eating. Instant noodles taste better, and even a 7-yuan bowl of hot dry noodles from a street stall beats it.

Also, the soul of hot pot is meatballs and sliced meat—definitely not some dumb potato slices.