Malatang
“A vibrant hot pot of assorted ingredients simmered in a spicy, numbing broth tinged with sesame.”
The bite
You pick raw skewers from a wall-cooler — lotus root, beef tripe, fish balls, wide tofu skin, leafy greens, quail eggs — and hand them to the cook, who drops them into a numbing-spicy broth. They come back in a wide bowl, broth ladled over, dusted with sesame paste, peanut, cilantro, garlic water. Eat while the floor of the bowl is still oily.
Where it comes from
Started in the 1980s among Yangtze boatmen near Leshan and Yibin in Sichuan — they'd pool whatever vegetables and offal they had, simmer in a shared spiced broth on the boat. The street version moved inland with migrant workers in the 1990s; by the 2000s northern cities (especially via Tianjin's sweeter, sesame-heavy variant) had standardized the self-pick skewer format now seen nationwide.
What makes it work
Two formats coexist: Sichuan-style is broth-based and you eat the soup; northern-style (麻辣烫 in Beijing/Tianjin) drains the broth and tosses the cooked skewers in sesame paste — closer to a salad than a soup. The cooking broth is reused all day, deepening as fat and gelatin from successive batches accumulate; a fresh-pot malatang tastes thinner than one served at 9pm.
On the Palate
What goes into it
Proteins
Herbs & Spices
Grains & Staples
Sauces & Condiments
Other
How it's made
- 1
Prepare a spicy broth with doubanjiang, Sichuan pepper, and chili peppers, bringing to a simmer.
- 2
Select and prepare ingredients such as pork, tofu, and mushrooms to desired sizes.
- 3
Add selected ingredients to the simmering broth, cooking until tender.
- 4
Stir in sesame sauce for depth and creaminess.
- 5
Serve with fresh scallions for a burst of freshness.
