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Nowadays, hotpot is one of China’s most popular food (even for Christmas!), but with hundreds of restaurants and so many different dishes, there are millions of possibilities of what to eat.

Here we give you some vocabulary to satisfy your appetite, whether you eat spicy beef tripe (重辣的毛肚) or potato with peanut sauce (花生酱土豆).

Hotpot soup vocabulary

Let’s start with the base. Learn how to talk about the broth in Mandarin Chinese, whether you want ‘spicy broth’ or milder ‘mushroom soup pot’. Our advice: go for the double-flavor hot pot.

Spiciness in Chinese

In China, spiciness is a hot topic (pun intended), with people having different tastes. Generally, people from the Sichuan province can eat extremely spicey, while in Shanghai tastes are more towards the sweeter spectrum. In any case, you can tell your preference in Mandarin Chinese with the following list, for any food, not just Chinese hotpot!

Sauces in Mandarin

In China, many Chinese hotpot restaurants let you assemble your own sauce, but it’s hard to see which sauce is which. For this, the following Mandarin vocab is useful to make your hotpot sauce.

Meat dishes words

Many people will feel a hotpot isn’t complete without meat in it; beef, pork, chicken, etcetera. Learn how to see these types of meat by their Chinese name here.

Vegetable dishes words

Vegetables are also a popular dish for hotpot in China, even among non-vegans and vegetarians. Here are the Chinese pronunciations and Hanzi characters for cabbage, spinach, and more.

Ordering side dishes in Chinese

Ordering side dishes with hotpot isn’t that common in China, but we are not here to judge. Even so, some Chinese people also prefer to order some white rice along hotpot, to ‘cool down’ the spiciness flavors. With this list of vocabulary, you can order sidedishes in Mandarin Chinese.