[China] From Hot Spicy to Healthy / Many restaurants in line to open beauty hot pot restaurants with "flower gelato"
The hottest ingredient for 2019 is the collagen-rich "flower gel"
After 2019, the number of hot pot restaurants with "flower jiao" in their names has increased in Shanghai city." A number of specialty restaurants with "flower jiao" in their names have opened, including "bean wangbang Jiaoyuan Flower Jiao Hot Pot" (seven restaurants in the city) and "Fengsheng Miss Miss Flower Jiao Chicken Soup Hot Pot" (three restaurants in the city). Previously popular restaurants are also adding the flower gelato hotpot to their menu.
"Flower gelato" is made by drying and rehydrating the floating bags of seawater fish, such as yellow croaker and white croaker, and has a texture like that of kikurage. They have no taste, but are said to contain collagen that is easily absorbed by the human body, and are attracting the attention of women who are looking for beauty benefits. When put in hot pot, it is usually eaten in a cloudy white broth made of stewed bone-in chicken." Collectively known as "hanger-on chicken hot pot," it adds healthy ingredients such as mushrooms and seafood.
Signs of change in hot pot craze as people shun shark's fins
Shanghai has a variety of restaurants specializing in different genres of hot pot, with a different hot pot boom coming every few years (e.g. bullfrog hot pot prior to 2018). Hot pot with huajiao (花胶) is a healthy way to enjoy the taste of light broth, which is quite different from what has been popular in the past. The boom is believed to be due to the emergence of a trend among health-conscious people to shun extremely spicy food and the recent emergence of a segment of the population that does not eat shark fins, which are rich in collagen, from the perspective of environmental protection and animal welfare. Another reason for the accelerated boom is the increase in the number of restaurants in Shanghai in recent years that have come from Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, the home of huajiao cuisine.
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- Dec 23, 2019
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