13th day of Summer Vacation: in which we review Han Asian Cuisine (aka The Hot Pot Restaurant)

The misleadingly named Han Asian Cuisine (in West Hartford) is actually a Chinese restaurant specializing in Hot Pot. What is hot pot, you may ask? It's a traditional form of cuisine, where in one or more pots of boiling hot broth are set on the table, along with platters of raw ingredients, and each person may cook whatever they like and then fish it out to eat.

All the tables have heaters for your individual pot of broth. They have 9 different kinds of broth; I'm a wimp so I stick with the Mushroom or Chinese Herbal, neither of which is spicy. They have a huge bar of dipping sauces, which you can mix yourself or ask one of the staff to help you. I generally go for House Sauce #1, to which I add fermented dried vegetables and Salty Leek Sauce (no, I am not making up that name). It's intensely salty, aromatic, flavorful. I use it sparingly on my food and drink several glasses of water. Other options include peanut sauce, Hoisin sauce, spicy broad bean sauce, fermented bean curd, and many others.

There's a giant a la carte menu, running to several pages and around a hundred options. For first-timers, I recommend going at lunch and getting the lunch special. For $12, you get your choice of broth, a serving of noodles, a serving of protein (basic options only: beef, lamb, pork, shrimp, chicken, or fish), and a generous platter of mixed vegetables and mushrooms. The platter includes Chinese cabbage, bean sprouts, 4 types of mushrooms, sweet potato, potato, lotus root, two fried cubes of tofu, and some other goodies. I think it varies slightly by availability.

There's a similar dinner option, rather more expensive and with about twice as much food. We've found that one dinner option will provide enough vegetables for 2-4 people, so our family of four will generally order one dinner option and a lot of a la carte noodles and protein options to round out everyone's meal, plus 3 more pots of broth.

There's options to get 2 broths in one bowl (with a solid divider), but I haven't explored this. I really should. I could get one half of something safe and one half of something spicy.

There's a full page of appetizers, but I haven't tried any of them except the dumplings, which were quite good. I think there might be desserts, but we never end the meal at any condition except for groaningly full.

It's almost impossible to explain Hot Pot to anybody who didn't grow up in a Chinese family, so I recommend just going. The staff is very helpful and the $12 lunch will set you up nicely.