Using sea cucumber as the ingredients for hot pot

Uncle “Fresh, tender, crispy”

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Hot pot is one of brands of Chongqing fine food. Tripe and duck intestine are must-have ingredients for Chongqing hot pot, but have you ever tried canned herring, stinky tofu, etc., for pot ingredients? In Shapingba, there is such a 60-year-old man nicknamed of Uncle “Fresh, tender, crispy” who has become popular by eating hot pot, attracting millions of fans around.

In front of the camera, he did not say much but ate with great pleasure. All kinds of strange-looking ingredients are boiling in the hot pot, and many Chongqing people in other places will watch him eat hot pot like a TV series, and even feel more appetizing than eating hot pot themselves.

He has tasted more than 200 kinds of hot pot ingredients

“Hello everyone, today I’ll boil a few sea cucumbers ......” “Wow, it’s really soft, sticky and poppy ...... so delicious!” One day, in a rooftop garden in Shapingba District, sixty-year-old uncle Chen Ping was having hot pot while talking to the camera with netizens about his daily life. He is dressed in plain clothes, talking gently, as amicable as an uncle in the neighborhood.

The uncle’s obsession with hot pot far outweighs that of ordinary people. “If I don’t eat hot pot for two days, I feel sick. As soon as I hear where there is a good hot pot restaurant, I have to be there anyway.” Although he is 60 years old, but he still enjoys trying various hot pot ingredients, “I shot short videos just for fun, but they went viral on the Internet somehow with tens of thousands of thumbs-up each video, so I will continue to shoot the hot pot ingredients series.”

His son, A Sen, also said that after his father retired, he passed his time by making videos, “it was better for him to have something to do than staying home bored.”

That afternoon, the uncle prepared lily bulbs, sea cucumber, seaweed seedlings as hot pot ingredients. The lily bulbs were planted in his own yard, just dug out, washed and quickly put into the pot, “Just so so, a little bitter.” He also took out the treated sea cucumber, cooked for 10 minutes and then picked up, “Seafood flavor is very strong, it is a good ingredient for hot pot, but it is a little expensive,” he said with a smile.

Since October 2019, the uncle tried hot pot with a variety of unexpected ingredients, such as stinky tofu, canned herring, durian, grapefruit, braised pork … more than 200 kinds of ingredients in total so far, it seems that only you cannot think of, no he did not hot ingredients. It seems that he have tried every ingredients you can think of.

Nicknamed of Uncle “Fresh, tender, crispy” by netizens

“Tripe and duck intestine, the soul of Chongqing hot pot”, “It makes my mouth watering” ...... In his top short video, the uncle is tasting fresh tripe of the hot pot, with more than 1.37 million thumbs-up, more than 50 million views, as well as many messages and reposts from the netizens.

He also tried kiwi for hot pot. After cooking for a while, the sourness of the kiwi is diluted, and the spicy and sweet and sour match creates a unique flavor. As for the durian in hot pot, after boiling, the stench is gone and the rich flavor is released, “that feels great!”

Chongqing Evening News reporter noticed that every time he tried good ingredients, the uncle always popped out three words“Fresh, tender, crispy”, which has also become his catchphrase. Gradually, netizens called him Uncle“Fresh, tender, crispy”.

Seeing the comments of netizens, the uncle has been insisting on updating three or five times a week. At present, he has gained millions of fans on the Internet, with 9.4 million thumbs-up on one single platform of Tik Tok (Douyin).

Everything can be used as hot pot ingredient with principles

When checking his Tik Tok homepage, it says “Everything can be used as hot pot ingredient”. Indeed, all his 231 videos are related to hot pot, and each of them is about a new hot pot ingredient. He doesn’t say much in front of the camera, but a few simple shots of boiling, cooking and eating, have a strong appeal to his fans.

“Although I said everything can be used as hot pot ingredient, it should follow the principles.” He said that some seasonality of ingredients is important, for example, sugar cane is the sweetest in December; while some meat marinades are fragrant, but hot pot will make it lose its taste. Recently, he also worked out hot pot with dragon fruit and brought such fruit ingredients to the table, which was well-received by everyone.

He will keep sharing hot pot videos

For becoming popular on the Internet, the uncle knows using strange ingredients for hot pot is just an opportunity, but more importantly, is the love and passion for hot pot. Whether it is to spend 8 hours cooking cowhide for hot pot, or hand-cut sheep intestines, or fresh, tender and crispy panopea generosa, it follows by his heartfelt love after each sweating and passionate experience of hot pot.

He said that in the future he will keep making various interesting hot pot videos to share his hot pot life, as hot pot has become an indispensable part of his life. (Translated by Wang Junli, Fathom Language Limited)