Thai Hot Pot: the perfect winter-warmer/rainy-day/scorching-hot-day comfort food.
Torrential rain or 40°C/104°F weather. Humid-suffocating heat or 14°C/57°F weather.
You’ll never fail to see these “jim jum hotpot” spots (in Thailand) always jam-packed with customers. There’s just something about the broth in that lil’ clay pot that makes people wanna keep going back for more! I’m always amazed at how people can still be drawn to eat hotpot on a humid, sweat-filled day!
Essentially, jim-jum in itself is a unique and rustic culinary experience.
Who it isn’t for: It is definitely not advisable for people who only have 20 minutes to spare or people with tiny appetites.
Who it is for: It is a fun, communal activity for couples, families and friends. So, essentially people get to “cook” their dinner from scratch from the comfort of their table. There is no limit as to how long people can eat — at most places, the soup is free to refill and you can order as many ingredients as you want. *So, basically you can sit there for hours eating & eating and no one will judge you!
(*Only applies to the local spots and not the air-conditioned buffet joints in the mall.)
Let me break it down for you a little.
The word “jim-jum” จิ้มจุ่ม is like an onomatopoeia.
“jim-jum” จิ้มจุ่ม simply means “dipping” (the food into sauce) and “dropping” (the food into the hot soup) respectively, perfectly describing the method of cooking and eating it.
At a regular “jim-jum” restaurant, you will be provided with a menu filled with a list of all sorts of raw ingredients that you can put inside the pot — ranging from marinated minced pork, glass noodles, chinese cabbage to prawns etc. Each plate of ingredient costs about $0.16-$1 per plate (depending on the item). Feel free to customise the pot to your liking – meat or vegan-friendly versions. No judgement.
You can then proceed on to place your order (of the ingredients) and the server will set down a smokin’ hot earthenware pot filled with the restaurant’s secret, aromatic broth resting on top of a bed of searing hot coals, in the middle of the table.
The server will then bring the ingredients you ordered, which is your signal for the cooking session to commence!
Once the soup starts boiling, it is recommended to add your vegetables into the pot first so that the broth gets naturally sweetened. Then you can start to add the meats and other ingredients inside. Once cooked, you can dip the cooked meat/ingredients into the selection of spicy & sweet dipping sauces (nam jim น้ำจิ้ม) provided. Some people enjoy pairing the ingredients with glass noodles, rice vermicelli or a bowl of rice and others like to crack an egg into the absolutely flavourful soup towards the end of the meal.
The base of the broth is traditionally made with pork or chicken (however they may have vegan-friendly options available, do check with the servers), finely sliced sweet basil, ripped kaffir lime leaves, roughly chopped lemon grass and galangal pieces.
If you are going with a group of friends, it is highly economical and absolutely filling!
I once brought my British & Italian friend there for their first time and we ended up sitting there for almost 2 hours with stacks of empty plates (from the ingredients we ordered)! It was an entirely new dining experience for them but they thoroughly loved it! We each paid about $4.85 — $8.09 USD (approximate range) for the entire meal!? I mean, c’mon it’s an ABSOLUTE steal!
And for me, it was truly a precious time of sharing our lives (and stories) with each other & bonding over a simple, humble meal of hot pot.
