Skewer · Self-serve hot pot

Chuan Chuan Xiang (Skewer Hot Pot)

📷 Closely related photo — Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use

It's hot pot stripped to its cheapest, most democratic form — diners grab handfuls of pre-skewered ingredients and pay by counting empty sticks at the end.

Dozens of small skewers — meat, vegetables, tofu, quail eggs — sit chilled in an open display for diners to pick themselves, then are dropped into a shared pot of numbing, chili-laden broth.

Why it's made this way: The stick-and-broth format let street vendors serve hotpot-style food to individual diners without a full table setup.