Eat Up Havana: Blending and Bonding at Old Town Hot Pot

Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. Now, we're turning our attention to another vibrant culinary corridor.

The four-plus mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Westword contributor Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week.

First up: Old Town Hot Pot, a recent pick for our ten favorite restaurants in Aurora.
The first thing you notice when walking into Old Town Hot Pot are the tables.

While the round electric burners embedded within the empty tables indicate you’re not at a “typical” restaurant, that’s not what actually stands out most. It’s the people sitting at the full tables who immediately catch your eye.

Aside from a few two- and four-tops, there are six to eight people or more — nearly all Asian — in what looks like multi-generational gatherings. Young children standing in the booths, laughing or causing mischief. Parents keeping the smaller children away from the burners with one hand while serving with the other. Older grandparents pushing food around or adding ingredients piled high on plates into the pots.

This is Chinese hot pot, a style of eating designed as a communal experience between friends and family. The concept is deceivingly simple, not unlike fondue: bowls of different flavored broth are placed on burners embedded into the tabletop, used to cook and flavor a wide variety of ingredients, which each diner can customize further with their own dipping sauce creations.

Some hot pot establishments feature large bowls of broth divided into different sections for different flavors. Old Town Hot Pot, however, opts for smaller bowls that can be used individually or shared among the table. Both have the same result: everyone has the opportunity to create and eat to their preferences while still bonding through a shared culinary experience.

If you’re familiar with hot pot and how it works, then you already know the drill: 1. pick broth; 2. pick protein, veggies and starch; 3. pick dipping sauces. For others, there’s a learning curve, and if you’re not familiar with the broth, ingredients or sauces, there’s really not much of a roadmap to follow.

Lacking a more experienced companion to guide you, it’s going to be a matter of trial and error. So the strategy here is to take it slow, keep it simple and think it through.

The Broth

The Old Town Hot Pot menu isn’t particularly descriptive here. Some broths — like kimchi, miso or tom yum — are straightforward enough. But you wouldn’t know that the "original" option is a rich chicken broth sweetened slightly with goji berries unless you've already had it. And have faith that the spicy option is very much exactly that.

The Protein, Veggies and Starch

Here you have several pages of options. Meat like lamb, beef, pork, brisket, and even Spam are listed alongside perhaps less-familiar options like tripe, pork blood, beef stomach and tendon.

Seafood includes shrimp, squid, mussels, clams, oysters and more. Vegetables run the gamut from bok choy and other cabbages to pumpkin, yam, potato, wintermelon, several styles of tofu, mushroom and much more.

Fortunately, Old Town Hot Pot uses an all-you-can-eat model, which removes the cost-consideration of experimentation. Be warned though, if you leave behind ingredients in sufficient quantity there is an added food waste charge of $4.

The Process

Whatever you order will come out nearly instantly. Remember, you’re doing the cooking so there’s little wait. The broth comes out in metal pots placed on the burners, which comes quickly to a boil. It’s not uncommon to regularly adjust the temperature based on what you’re cooking and how far the broth has reduced, and you’ll hear the beeping of the temperature control knob from other tables like the sounds of a cashier ringing up a customer with a digital cash register.

The cooking involves a bit of strategy, as the order in which you put in the ingredients matters, both from a cooking time and flavor contribution standpoint. Slices of potatoes can take a good fifteen minutes to cook through at a simmer. The thin slices of beef will take less than a minute. Some ingredients, like fish, will infuse the broth with additional flavor. So be sure to do it all in stages — don’t toss an entire plate of sliced beef into the broth or it will dilute the flavor and turn the liquid into a dirty brown mess.

The Sauce

At the back of the restaurant sits a sauce and topping station with more than twenty options, designed for blending into your own creation. Pick a bowl (or bowls) and compile the combination you desire. Done right, this can really elevate the experience. But those unfamiliar can quickly get themselves into trouble.

Sauces like soy, sesame, oyster, hoisin, ponzu, shacha and pancake sit amidst oils like sesame, chile, chile garlic, and a range of toppings, from garlic to scallion, nuts, chile flakes and more.

The key here is restraint. Mixing 22 sauces together is a sludge, not a condiment. If you don’t know what you’re doing, use multiple bowls for a bit of each sauce you’re interested in and test. Then try mixing a few. It may take a few rounds to the sauce station, but that’s the point of experimentation. Remember: that part is no extra cost. Try it out.

Compiling a hot pot should be about balance. The ingredients and broth should complement each other, and the sauce should provide a contrast. (A sweeter dipping sauce, for example, works better with food cooked in a spicy broth than a spicy dipping sauce would.)



A Few Last Tips

• Don’t wear light clothing. There’s a lot of splashing and splattering going on.
• Wait for the food to cool after removing from the broth before eating. Going right from broth to mouth will result in scalding.
• Pay attention to what is brought to the table. Ensure what’s delivered is what was ordered. Sometimes there’s a mixup, but the staff is happy to make any errors right.
• If you wind up with a combo you don’t like, just try again. Don’t blame the restaurant — you blew that yourself.

For some, this may seem like a lot of work. Even scary. You may even feel the urge to complain about a lack of direction or suggestions for the first-timer. If that happens, take a beat and look around at the groups of families and friends around you enjoying both their meal and their time together.

Old Town Hot Pot is more than just a place to eat. It’s an expression of a cultural tradition that you either grew up with or you didn’t. It’s an opportunity to practice a different approach to eating out, one that requires more mindfulness and effort, but that pays off in a deeper and more meaningful connection to both the food and the people around you.

Old Town Hot Pot is located at 2852 South Havana Street and is open from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Thursday through Tuesday. For more information, visit oldtownhotpotco.com.