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Hot pot is hot at Seven Stars Pepper
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When I'm not wanting to make the drive north to Hosoonyi for delicious chigae on a cold day, Seven Stars Pepper (at 12th and Jackson, our favorite food corner in Seattle) is a more local place to warm up with hot pot.
I like to find four people to go, and then we get the works: platter after platter of meat (thinly sliced pork, beef, chicken and lamb are possible), seafood (shrimp, squid, fish balls and pieces of a white fish), tofu, cabbage, noodles, and tripe. (Note that you might have to ask for the tripe, as the servers assume Caucasians don’t eat it.)
The fun starts when the server fires up the flame of a butane-powered portable burner. Atop the burner is an aluminum pot containing a split of broths – our favorite feature of the meal. One is simple, and one is spiced with our beloved Sichuan peppercorns. Throw in whatever tempts you, monitor the flame, and then use chopsticks to fish out your catch.
It’s an interactive affair that you can enjoy at your own pace; time passes as you talk and taste your way through the communal meal. We’re lucky to have a variety (including Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean) of hot pot places available to us locally during winter and, well, whenever. But I especially like Sichuan-style. The broths are, indeed, willing and eager to accept whatever you want to offer them, and I find the ma-la (numbing and spicy) red variety simply seductive.
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