Hey it’s a self heating hot pot! I got this one at China World on St. Patrick’s Day this year. The weekend before, we drove up to Canada and checked out China World in Richmond, BC. It was amazing – awesome! Got two baskets of noodles. Went tot he front and boom – cash and Canadian debit only. That sucked. So we came back the next weekend! I found about eight different varieties of these hot pots and so here’s the first. I’ve reviewed two others in the past. Let’s open this thing up and see what makes it tick – yeah – it cooks itself!

Chongqing Suanlabao Food Co., Ltd. Hot Pot Mala Seasoning & Sesame Oil Package – China

The distributor’s sticker (click to enlarge).

The underside of the cardboard piece (click to enlarge). Doesn’t appear to contain meat. To prepare, add everything but the heating pack to the upper tray. Add hot water to fill line. Add heating pack to lower tray. Add cold water to fill line – close to the bottom. Place upper tray back on lower tray and replace plastic lid. Let it do it’s thing for 15 minutes. Finally, stir and enjoy!

The front and back of an informational slip (click to enlarge).

Included chopsticks!

The noodles package.

A big pouch of vegetables.

A huge soup base sachet.

The sesame oil sachet.

The heating pack. I definitely wouldn’t eat this.

Finished (click to enlarge). Added fried Mala Sichuan Spicy SPAM. The noodle come out nicely, as did the vegetables. They are both of good quality. The soup is violent. So full of Sichuan peppercorn and oiliness that it just is far too overwhelming to any other flavors. It seems kind of pointless to have such fine ingredients only to stifle them with monotone flavor. 0.25 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 6971070680024.

Here’s a video from Straits Times about these interesting self heating hot pots.