Back at home, my friend and I organize hotpots about four times a year, and we’ve optimized our shopping strategy. The local Chinese market opens at 10 a.m., cash only (two facts we learned the hard way, multiple times), so we go at 10 and whip through our shopping list: fish balls, shrimp balls, beef balls, beef, vermicelli noodles, fish tofu, tofu, straw mushrooms, napa cabbage, soup base, and, most importantly, lychee jellies. We’ve modified the list over the years based on consumption observations – spinach and regular mushrooms were rejected, as were fish balls with meat inside, while fish tofu and kamaboko became staples. We spend about $40 every time, and can feed up to 8 people, with minimal leftovers. We even sold one of our hotpots for over $100 at the senior auction. Here’s the fish product spread from the last hotpot we organized: