The Drunken Pot’s saké and hotpot pairings

‘Tis the season for hotpot in Hong Kong and newly opened The Drunken Pot serves up sumptuous steamboats along with its private label saké.

In Hong Kong, the sub 20C Arctic temperatures call for hotpot (or steamboat, depending on which part of Asia you hail from) – a steaming soup stock where diners fling in any combination of vegetables, seafood or thinly sliced meat and devour with varying degrees of spicy sauce.

As one of the most traditional Chinese recipes spanning thousands of years, hotpot is on nearly every Hong Kong street with some offering offally-good combinations of pig skin and chicken kidneys and morsels of Mongolian mutton.

However, the newly opened Drunken Pot in Tsim Sha Tsui has classed the experience up a bit by pairing high-end hotpots with its own private label premium saké from premium saké-producing region, Nagahama in Shiga Prefecture.

The Drunken Pot, Restaurant 1, 2/F 8 Observatory Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2321 9038.

Click through to discover the colourful culinary world of hotpot and saké.

A wealth of choices allow crowds to mix broth bases with a selection of numerous speciality hotpots like this 4-in1 ‘Notorious Pot’ comprising black truffle with assorted mushrooms soup; pork bone broth soup; Sichuan-style ‘numbingly spicy’ soup and pickled mustard with pork stomach and pepper soup.

Saké and whisky-based cocktails are served in Tiki-style cups to take the edge of the fiery chilli, or you can opt for gynura (also known as ‘Longevity spinach’) tea or refreshing bamboo cane juice.

The signature 5-in-1 ‘Drunken Pot’ offers a hearty combination of whole papaya with shrimp, crab, and clams soup; squid ink seafood soup; Sichuan-style spicy soup; and Teochew-style (South East Asian) satay soup.

The house saké from Nagahama in Shiga Prefecture, has been created specially for The Drunken Pot. Its slight sweetness and cold serving temperature will take the heat out of the chilli for those who have overdone it.

There’s always room for some colourful Xiao Long Bao dumplings stuffed with an eclectic range of fillings including black truffle, crab roe, squid ink and lobster.

Former light-bulbs serve as mocktail cups for gynura tea and bamboo cane juice.

A cockle-warming sight of a hearty 5-in-1 hotpot with a supporting cast of fresh chilli, garlic and scallions to accent each bite.

This arresting hotpot uses fresh lobster with wasabi for those looking to push the (steam) boat out.

The colourful array of dishes include drunken tofu gelato, made with fresh fish paste and tofu flavoured with mala and taro. Drunken chicken, fresh scallops and hand-sliced Angus beef.