Hotpot for One

I went into the center a lot this week, getting to know my colleagues and other students, but I would end up staying late and be starving by the time I got home. On Thursday, I decided to treat myself to food I've been craving -- hotpot! I left a bit early, went to the grocery store and bought super small quantities of all the vegetables I like, a hotpot soup base and sesame paste for dipping. It took a lot of work to clean and chop everything, but it all looked very nice when I'd finished.

I ended up using my rice cooker to boil/ keep the soup warm on my table. It work really well and I wasn't stuck eating in the kitchen.

After I was ready and the pot started boiling, I realized I was missing one of the essential things that I love about hotpot -- people to share it with. Unlike things I had been eating recently, hotpot is a slow meal, meant to be eaten over an extended period of time, usually chatting with friends for an hour or two as you slowly devour piles of raw meat and vegetables in large varieties. As I sat in my beautiful new apartment, the private space I had been dreaming of while spending two weeks on my friends couch and a semester with a roommate in Harbin, I realized that I missed having people around. I called FD to fill the silence for a bit before starting up Hulu where John Stewart and the cast of Modern Family kept me company as I ate round after round of broccoli, mushrooms, and pumpkin. Then two, well three, of my neighbors knocked at my door. My neighbor with the seven-month-old boy was having a hard time getting him settled down, so she and her mom brought him to my apartment for a change of scenery. He was quiet almost immediately. I was glad they felt comfortable enough to come see me (we often chat in the hallway and my neighbor's mother has bequeathed me with the nickname 美女阿姨 beautiful aunt), and I was glad to play with the baby while the relished the moment of peace.

They stayed for about 45 minutes which was probably all the little boy could take; he was getting sleepy/ crabby. After they left, my apartment, though still big and empty, seemed less lonely. I'll have to think of some way to get them over more often.