Tsinghua Cafeteria Series 2: small hot pot station

Sadly, there is no way even Jen can make this small hot pot 砂锅 station look delicious. The presentation of the ingredients was the most saliva-inducing part of this experience.

This is the first station when you enter cafeteria no. 7. Shaguo 砂锅 refers to a small earthenware pot (in this case, tin, which is probably the first issue) in which the soup-like stew is cooked.

You pick your ingredients, which top a mix of mung bean noodles and cabbage. I went for the safely vegetarian egg and mushroom; Jen was braver and had mushroom and lamb. We handed over RMB 3.6. It’s cooked on a gyrating live flame at the back and was presented warm, with a second tin plate for spillage. Then we got to pick from the chili oil and various other watered down sauces.

Please excuse the thin skim of flavoring covering the MSG-dense, watery, greasy broth. Look, we eats and loves ourselves some MSG almost everyday; see this for proof. I’m not sure we’ve decided on a party line on MSG for this blog, but I’m not against MSG! MSG makes things delicious and is most probably not really harmful to your health. Perhaps it was also the limp greasy cabbage, eaten next to someone else’s leftover fish bones.

This meal had to be chased with a pillowy roasted sweet potato, but the sustained trauma was acute. It is for the good of this site that we will go back again. And a reminder that this is what the future upper echelon of China feed upon whilst they study at one of Beijing’s top universities.

Update: I have received information that this stand transforms into a delicious Shanghainese soup dumplings (xiaolongbao 小龙包) stand for breakfast. Be back with another report.