there, eric? eric: i m doing ama-amazingly well. seven: hanging in there? eric: my sinuses are seven: open. anthony: so open you have no idea. wu: best part of hot pot is to share. eric: is to share? wu: to share, yeah. eric: yes, i like that too. it s very convenient. wu: yeah. sometimes when, we have, like, hotpots for four hours. anthony: as it cooks down it gets stronger and stronger and the heat more intense. a delicious yet unpredictable silt of spice gathering at the bottom of this river of hot lava. if you dig deep, like, down to the sediment down there, the river bed, man. it s spicy. you feel enlightened yet? look how the colors changed in the broth. xiao: that was you kind of
xiao: this is now boiling. anthony: oh, that s good, man. that s good. xiao: that was eric s first bite of hot pot. anthony: awesome, right? eric: yes. anthony: and it only gets better, my friend. gao: oh, this is nice. anthony: oh yeah. seven: tofu. eric: oh, this is tofu? seven: yeah. eric: oh, it s the skin on top? seven: yeah. anthony: common ingredients like tofu and seaweed, various meats and fishes, are stirred in along with ingredients that are, shall we say, less familiar to the western palate. they got the duck. eric: yeah, yeah. anthony: then they reach inside, they grab the, grab the intestines, and yank em out of a live duck. eric: no! seven: yeah. supposedly that s the bit that gives you, like, the most fresh. eric: but it s a bit cruel, right? anthony: well, you want em fresh, eric. i mean seven: yeah. i think we should drink some beer. anthony: yes, i think so. all: cheers. seven: how are you doing
expected it? eric: yes. it is exactly what i expected it. [ laughs ] seven: more beers, guys? anthony: yeah. definitely. eric: i cannot think anymore. so i m gonna eat and drink. anthony: but the baijiu comes out and everything is fine again, for me, anyway. i m not so sure about eric. anthony: you re out of it, man. it s all good, though. it s all good. eric: okay. anthony: don t say okay. the evening s just beginning. xiao: everything you just had was appetizer. anthony: it s all good, though. it s all good. eric: he s the devil. look at him. seven: let s drink baijiu. anthony: all right, eric. yeah. you re getting into the spirit of things. eric: do you know he took me, he took me on this trip to make me suffer. seven: yeah.
eric: to kill me slowly or fast. seven: that s what friend does to another friend. you know? that s what good friends do. anthony: yes. seven: in drinking culture of china we enjoy torturing your friends. [ eric laughs ] xiao: well, let s drink to friendship. seven: yeah. anthony: to friendship. seven: to friendship. eric: thank you. i like that. wu: ah, okay. to friendship. eric: yeah, to friendship. seven: to friendship. people, with quickbooks live someone else will do your books for you. they ll even pair you with an expert bookkeeper like me, who knows your business. knows your business! expert bookkeepers who understand your business. intuit quickbooks live bookkeeping. it s the most joyous time of year. especially at t-mobile! let s go to dianne. i got the awesome new iphone 13 pro and airpods, and t-mobile is paying for them both! and this is for new and existing customers. upgrade to the iphone 13 pro and airpods both on us. only at t-mobile.
anthony: local friend xiao bin and musician friend seven. wu jiao ling and gao shin. all enjoy a good hot pot. almost everybody around here does. eric, however, seems apprehensive. anthony: so, this is eric s first time for sichuan hot pot. gao: really? anthony: i think you re really going to enjoy this. eric: yeah. anthony: so this is particularly good, right? xiao: it is known for being spicy. so [ laughs ] seven: not a good news. [ laughs ] eric: i feel it in my eyes already. yeah. anthony: the way it works is you order a whole bunch of ingredients meat, vegetables, noodles, fish, whatever you like, a lot of different ingredients, and you feed them into the pot. seven: we should just throw them first. anthony: yeah. i mean, cause that s gonna take a long time. let s throw that tripe in. seven: that s called, like, thousand-layer stomach. anthony: it s all going in there, man. the inner ring is a more neutral broth. the outer ring, though, is the good