Food Prep Series: Soup Pot Restaurant.

L-R: sliced beef, fish cakes (pureed fish in a tofu shape/texture) and meatballs.

At the request of my sister, I’ve been trying to photograph/film the various ways food is prepped here in China. The first spot that I get to show you about is probably going to be the most similar to what we’d see back home, which is still a ways different from what we’re used to.

A friend of mine is the manager of this particular restaurant, and was happy to let me come in and look around. He’s very proud of his restaurant, as he should be. The service is great and the food is delicious.

It’s a cantonese restaurant specializing in soup pot, which is similar to hot pot, but not hot (spicy). You order your broth (chicken, mushroom, beef) which goes on a hot plate built into your table, and you order your choice of meats, veggies and noodles to cook in it. You can also make your own dipping sauce from a selection of spices and sauces that are set up buffet style. Yum!

Pretty much everything in any restaurant I’ve seen is cut with one of these large knives. Doesn’t matter if its veggies, herbs, or a whole bird, bones and all.

Cutting meat to go in a stir fry dish, all the workers seemed very uncomfortable with me being there, whoops. I tried to stay out of their faces as best I could.

From what I’ve seen, most of the food is cooked over these giant flames in restaurants here. Its cooks super fast, and often times if you can see the kitchen you can catch a glimpse of the flames hitting the ceiling. This only seems to alarm Westerners, the locals don’t blink an eye.

Flaming woks and a fish hung up to dry.

When you first enter the restaurant, there’s a wall of tanks with various fish, snakes, turtles, crabs, etc. If you choose to order one, they’ll take it back here to prep it. My friend said he avoids this room because he really doesn’t like to watch, and I don’t blame him. It looks like it’s got a lot of use though.