Hot Is The Pot, The Pot Is Hot

One of the most shocking things people find about me,

is that I'm not a fan of Chinese food at all.

{I sure am exciting, yeah?}

I mean, I like a good egg roll and a big bowl of 

Panda Express's crack orange chicken as much as anyone else,

but just like we know that "shrimp hamburgers with a side of curry rice" 

isn't real American food (ahem, KFC China), 

we know that stuff ain't the real thing.

This has become a slight issue because, as you know, I'm smack dab 

in the middle of real China for a very real two months. 

My solution? Hotpot. Hotpot, I can do. Hotpot, I love. 

Sure it's still technically Chinese food, but it's truly a cuisine of its own, 

and one of my favorites. After spending many a summer in Nanjing, 

I've hit just about every major hotpot restaurant in town, and then some. 

I already have plans to visit my old favorites next week, 

but first, here are two new kids on the block:

Because AoMenDouLao isn't exclusively a hotpot restaurant,

its actual hotpot, which is primarily seafood-based, was really pretty standard,

but quite delicious nevertheless!

HaiDiLao, translated literally to mean "Scooping The Bottom Of The Ocean,"

was a winner in my book - great broth, good pickings (bacon in hotpot = brilliant),

and excellent service. We were there for maybe two hours, and: our waitresses

knew our names, took RBX over to the babysitting service, gave us band-aids and

a few back-scratchers, gifted RBX with a few wind-up toys, a great discount, 

and even hired a mask-changing entertainer to perform for us. 

I think this kind of "ask, and you shall receive" service mantra 

is a very large part of the reason why the line into 

the restaurant wraps around quite a few times!

Moral of the story: I'm hot for hotpot. 4evah.