I still remember that in my childhood, we spend most of our evenings around a bar with a large pot and various types of ingredients lined up by wood prods. To be frank, I am not very sure the English name of Malatang so that I just translated from the Chinese name 麻辣烫. Malatang surely is one member of the hot pot family, which is mainly popular in Sichuan area of cause including Chongqing. In order to show people’s love towards this type of delicious food, there is a popular song named as Malatang, and also a TV program named as Live Malatang, which mainly tell the stories about people in that area.
If you ever visit any cities in Sichuan province, you will see lots of Malatang restaurants on the street. Many of them begin to start their business in the afternoon and until very late in night. Although it is belongs to the hot pot family, it still have some differences between traditional hot pot.
The common ingredients of Malatang are tofu, mushrooms, vegetables, meat balls and hams. Compared with traditional hot pot, the ingredients need shorter cooking time. Also the cooking processing is a little bit different. Meat ingredients such as chicken or lamb are not commonly used in malatang. The broths of Malatang generally are heavier than hot pot and no dipping sauce needed for cooked ingredients Malatang.
There are also varies types of Malatang developed during recent years. For example we have Malatang based on pot, Malatang based on bowl and Malatang based on earthen pot. If you fortunately find one Malatang restaurants nearby, please go ahead and have a try. Or you can be brave and curious to make one family type Malatang at home.
Hi Elaine, your blog inspires me for everyday cooking I think it’s the only authentic Sichuan food blog .
Now is it possible to make this dish at home? I ate it in many small restaurants in chengdu but I would like to try to make it as well since I don’t live in China. Thanks a lot for everything you write.
Thanks so much Jo!
Do you have a ma la tang or mao cai recipe? I would love to learn how to make this dish!
Thanks Sheila for your suggestion. I will make a ma la tang soon for the summer night.
Yes, a recipe would be great. This looks like a fun casual outdoor dinner with friends.
We make Korean BBQ outside and it’s great, this would be a nice change.
Is there a Chinese wine or beer that would be good with this?
Hi Elaine! Love your blog!!! Thank you so much for posting all things Sichuan… I used to frequent a popular Sichuan restaurant but havent gone there in quite a long time since I found your blog. Been making lots of Sichuan dishes myself. There is one however that I used to order that was my favorite. It was called Eggplant and Tofu Hot Pot. It had the creamiest strips of eggplant in a brownish grey sauce that was brought to the table in a clay pot bubbling hot. When I ordered it I would ask the waiter to ask the chef to leave out most of the tofu and add more eggplant. Im sure you could add other protein as well. Are you familiar with this dish? Is so, will you pleeeeaaase post a recipe? I just ordered a clay pot and would love to make this recipe for my first dish in it.
Thank you so much for all you do!
Tee,
Can you provide me a photo via FB or Ins?