If you go to a Si chuan restaurant, and want to have hot pot, they bring you soup, (ma la tang), with two sides. The red side is hot, (spicy), and the white side is not. This is from a restaurant called Tan yu tou, (yu is fish, tou is head). They specialize in fish heads which are dropped into the soup to add flavour to it, and the fish heads are tasty as anything as an appetizer for your meal. Then, in the soup, you cook beef, lamb, potatoes, tofu, mushrooms, greens...anything you like.