Time for another one of these self heating/self cooking hot pots from China. I’ve found so far that the draw of these for me seems to be more of novelty than an thorough enjoyment of the innards of these. But hey – all it’s been up til now is mala – now we’ve got sour turnip duck vermicelli! Let’s check it out!

Yumei Instant Sour Turnip Duck Vermicelli Hot Pot – China

First, let’s look at the English instructions (click to enlarge). Here we go:

CONSUME DIRECTION:

1. Open the box, remove the upper layer, tear off the sauce bag and chives bag, and pour them into the upper layer.
2. Tear off the vermicelli bag and vegetable bag, and put them into the upper layer, and stir and mix them together.
3. Add water into the upper layer, but not over the edge of the layer (hot water recommend for the better favor).
4. Open the self-heating package bag, and put the self-heating package into lower layer, add cold water until the self-heating package soaked totally.
5. Put the upper layer on the top, and cover the lid, wait 8 minutes or more and enjoy the hotpot.
CAUTION: THE HOT STEAMING AND PREVENT FROM BURNING HURT.

Okay – a couple interesting things here. I do want to avoid the burning hurt when at all possible. Another is that this has a self-heating package that works via a chemical reaction in the lower level of the packaging. Wow – so this stuff literally cooks itself. Fascinating!

The import/distributor’s sticker (click to enlarge).

Included put-them-together chopsticks!

The vermicelli block.

A huge sachet of vegetables.

A liquid base sachet.

A chilli pepper sachet.

An oil sachet.

A wet napkin.

This is the fascinating item – the heating bag. When cold water is introduced, it starts a chemical reaction which brings the heat – apparently enough to cook this product. I’m really very curious about this – never have I seen such a thing in an instant noodle before. What gets me though is that it recommends using cold water in the lower tray with this and hot water in the upper tray with the food. If you need hot water to make this, why not just cook it with the hot water you’ve already prepared? But hey, this will be fun.

Finished (click to enlarge). The vermicelli was decent and came out perfectly. Vegetablesd were of good quality and quite a few different things going on. This is the third self heating hot pot I’ve tried thus far and the broth has the best flavor yet – mainly because it isn’t just spicy oily but tasty spicy oily. 3.75 out of 5.0 stars.  EAN bar code 6952395703384.

Asian Hotpots: How to Cook Simple and Delicious Hot Pot Dishes at Home

Pretty good video showing how this one’s prepared