The Origin of Chongqing Hotpot

Chongqing hot pot, also known as tripe hot pot or spicy hot pot, originated from the extensive catering mode of boatmen in Jialing River and Chaotianmen in Chongqing in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. The raw materials are mainly tripe, pig yellow throat, duck intestines and cow blood. Because Bashu is known as a "heavy" and "spicy" eating habit, it was seasoned with pepper and pepper, and later developed into a hawker selling along the street. Chongqing hot pot quickly radiated the whole country with the spring breeze of reform. From Golmud in the hinterland of northwest Gobi to Shanghai, an international metropolis on the coast of winter sea; From Harbin, the northern ice city, to Haikou, the capital of Coconut Island, there are Chongqing hot pot restaurants, and you can taste the unique flavor of Chongqing hot pot everywhere. Chongqing hot pot is popular all over the country. It's really delicious and charming. However, the development of authentic Chongqing hot pot is conservative, and the large-scale Chongqing hot pot technology has never been spread abroad, and it has always been developed in the form of joining. The franchise fee ranges from tens of thousands to millions, and the storefront has strict regulations, ranging from hundreds of square meters to thousands of square meters. Not to mention the decoration money, just the store rent and joining fee will make the majority of small and medium-sized investors in the society look at the hot pot. Only rich people dare to think, can do, can join Chongqing hot pot, and can earn the rolling financial resources brought by hot pot.

It is said that in the 1920s and 1930s, the Ma brothers opened the first hot pot restaurant with red soup and hairy belly in Chongqing, and the main course was hairy belly. During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, hairy belly hot pot began to appear at banquets in Chongqing. During the Anti-Japanese War, hot pot restaurants in Chongqing developed greatly, and hot pot restaurants opened all over the street. Among them, Yunlong Garden, Academy, 141, No Drunk, Qiaotou and so on are famous. On this basis, it became a hot pot in modern Chongqing.

Chongqing hot pot culture is rich and unique. One is to show the inclusiveness of China cooking. The word "hot pot" is not only the name of pot and container, but also the unity of technology and eating method of pot and container. The second is to show the harmony contained in China's diet. From the use of raw materials and soup materials to the coordination of cooking techniques, we should seek common ground while reserving differences and sum up the differences, so as to perfectly combine meat and vegetables, raw and cooked, spicy and fresh and sweet, tender and crisp and rotten, fragrant and strong with alcohol. Especially in folk customs, Chongqing hot pot presents a harmonious scene and psychological feelings, creating a cultural atmosphere of "concentricity, gathering, sharing and happiness". The third is universality.

Chongqing hot pot originated from the folk and sublimated to the temple fair. Whether vendors, servants, senior officials, literati, poets, businessmen, farmers or men with green hair and yellow hair, their consumer groups cover a wide range, and the per capita consumption times are far behind other places. As a kind of food, hot pot has become the representative of Chongqing cuisine and the business card of the city, so that people say, "If you don't eat hot pot in Chongqing, you have never been to Chongqing."