A really hot pot

There are many Yunnan restaurants in Beijing but Xiang Cao Xiang Cao (香草香草云南原生态火锅Lemongrass) is one of the few in which hot pot dominates, so much so that the smell of lemongrass is in the air.

Like most hot pot restaurants, it offers an order form on which to tick your choices, - there is also a menu with color illustrations but it is only in Chinese.

All the regular hot pot food is available - meatballs, beef, lamb and vegetables - but most customers look for the Yunnan specialties. To start with, the base stock is different: lemongrass with sour tomato soup, sharp-tip chili spicy soup, fragrant mushroom soup, and fish head soup. Besides the ordinary sesame paste sauce and sesame oil sauce, there are seven Yunnan flavor sauces, such as a Dai ethnic nationality spicy and sour sauce, and Yi nationality fragrant and spicy sauce.