The hotpot kit

What's this doing in sewing?



A hotpot setup including ingredient platters, bowls, pot, hob, scoops, chopsticks, spoons, skimmer, scissors and optional forks on top of their respective carry pouches.
All of the hotpot tools inside of their respective fabric pouches, with the plates, bowls, pot, and hob sitting on top of the carry bags. Presently it says updated bowls coming.

Half of the hotpot setup on the table, the divided pot, red serving plates, mesh scoops, chopsticks, spoons, a skimmer, and the pouches for them below the pot.The scoops, chopsticks, skimmer, and spoons beside their respective pouches, made from canvas, sari material, and floral print fabric.
This portion of the components inside their pouches, inside the pot, inside the shoulder bag with a cat print canvas creating a pocket on the front for the plates.The completed hotpot toolkit, now with slightly larger white ingredient platters, and the pot, hob, bowls, scoops, chopsticks, forks, spoons, skimmer, and kitchen shears arranged on a wooden table.
The bowls and plates stacked, the pot sitting on the hob, and all of the tools sitting atop their respective carry bags.All of the tools now inserted into their carry pouches, and the main carry bags sitting beneath the plates and hob stacks.
The divided pot with glass lid on, and inside are all of the pouches of chopsticks and scoops and everything else, sitting atop the pot's carry bag.The two carry bags now filled, all of the tools and equipment inside, sitting on the table. The pot bag has an image of dozens of simple cat drawings to create the bowl pouch, and the hob bag has a Stitch from Lilo and Stitch creating the pouch for the plates.
Ok, now hear me out. I need this kit to be able to travel with me. For years and years and years and years, basically ever since I started playing TTRPG's, my friend J1 had found it best to arrange a hotpot setup for game. He'd bring the hotplate, pot, broth, and an ingredient or two, and the rest of the players would split up bringing the rest of the ingredients, nappa cabbage, tofu, shaved meats, enoki mushrooms... I'll get a recipe down later, but first, what's with the sewing section? My friend just threw the setup into an Ikea bag and called it a day (you can see us enjoying it in the Kabucam gallery here :D ). I wanted to be more elaborate. I presently lack a car, how can I carry this over my shoulder? And much like my ultra-fancy hammocking kit, various pouches here in sewing, and my knitted cozies, I decided to make a fancy carrying case for all of this. Easy to carry, easy to organize, easy to unpack and repack, easy to wash (just throw them all in the next laundry load after campaign).

First, after finding the scoops and chopsticks by chance in Brighton, and this being not long after leaving survival mode, I decided to make the leap and pick up said scoops, and order a skimmer, divided bowl, plates, bowls, spoons? (I couldn't recall if we ever used spoons, but eh they were like £5, get em for now), a few two-prong forks (in case someone doesn't want to use chopsticks, I'm not going to force them), and of course, a hotplate. And for all of the smaller things (which thankfully fit inside the divided pot nicely, I did lop an inch off the skimmer though), I created seperate pouches for them to keep them organized, and keep them from all just rattling around inside of there, using various pieces and scraps of fabric that I had around.

And also, some of those ever useful canvas bags from Poundland that we've used before. This time, they had Lilo and Stitch! But first up, we had to reinforce the stitching, and boy do I like to reinforce it. At least double stitching everywhere, quadruple (one of them zig-zag) on the main pull seams, and literally with every line of thread in there. And on all the pouches. The cat canvas was from a veeeery old bag that had itself deteriorated, but this canvas decoration that was just on the front with no stress was fine, so I kept it, and it found a home here (I didn't want *all* of my bags to be Lilo and Stitch, so this works).

And then, the rest of the implements showed up in the mail, and everything came together fairly quickly. Though I do plan to replace the bowls with more appropriately shaped udon noodle style bowls, so the top image will be updated with that when I find some... the cat patterned pocket sheet is plenty wide, so I can always unstitch it and re-sew it if I should need. But, everything else is final form, so let's get pouching! Most of them were already finished by this point, so I made one for the kitchen shears, now added to the set (which also allows me to walk around without carrying a large knife on me, very good thing!) and added the front pouch for the larger ingredient plates which had just arrived (the red ones just felt too small). We used an identical Stitch creature from a bag that had donated its handle straps to make these crossbody bags, and the platters fit in just perfectly. Nice. We added a button and some tie straps to the front pockets to keep things from falling out, aaand then took like half an hour to take everything apart, then carefully rearrange them in various stages for photo purposes lol.

And the hob has been tested and works VERY well (yay for spending the bit extra for a 2000 watt Klarstein). Cools down ludicrously fast too (yay for an induction hob!), aaaand yus. The pot doesn't leak between the two segments (the first thing I actually tested), and nothing much rattles around while walking with it. After taking photos, I did add an elastic strap around the handles and over the lid of the pot (criss-crossed over the knob) to keep it secure, and that I think was the final touch. WOOH, time to eat!

So, what does one need for hotpot? Thankfully, J1 emailed the group a million times what food ingredients were already claimed, and what were needed, so let's combine some of those emails together:

Hotpot Recipe

Kit:
Divided pot
Hotplate
Mesh scoops
Fat skimmer
Chopsticks
Spoons
Forks - maybe
Tongs - maybe

Foods:
Soup bases
 - Miso stock - vegetable side
 - Mushroom stock - vegetable side
 - Chicken stock - meat side
 - Beef stock - meat side

Mushroom puffs
Enoki mushrooms
Shimeji mushrooms
Sorrel mushrooms
Button mushrooms
Carrot
Daikon radish
Beef balls
Fish balls
Fish cakes
Sliced beef
Sliced lamb
Sliced chicken
Salmon
Shrimp
Crab
Tofu
Bok choy
Gai lan
Spinach
Broccoli
Napa cabbage
Bamboo shoots
Bean sprouts
Udon noodles
Rice noodles
Egg noodles

Sauces
 - Soy sauce
 - Minced garlic
 - Ginger
 - Sesami oil
 - Oyster sauce

Just a pic of the hotpot tools from above, with the text saying pic of kit in use coming soon
Cut the larger ingredients into bite sized pieces before eating and put on a serving plate, perhaps pull apart the cabbage leaves from the core, and you're good to go! Boil the broths (one side is for meats, the other is for vegetables), chopstick your ingredients into the appropriate side, scoop them out when they're cooked or soft (you get good at this) and into your bowl, add your soy/sauces to your liking, and have at it! Add more water when needed, skim the broth when needed, eat, chat, and enjoy!


You of course don't need *all* of them, but it's a good selection of 'pick some stuff', and add anything you think can be boiled! Yah I know it's not vegan, but other people may not be, and I'm not gonna force that on em either. This is a fun time, not a soapbox time :D

So anyways, we've got out setup, we've (assumingly) gotten all of the foodstuffs, let's dig in (no Kraid not dive in that would be both silly and painful lol).


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