Making hotpot healthier fare

Founders of Qimin Organic Hotpot promote the idea of healthy fare with seasonal vegetables and selections with labels of their origins.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The avid advocate climbed aboard the organic-food movement after her tycoon father was diagnosed with hepatitis B in the 1990s. In 2005, the interest evolved into a more committed venture with a 33-hectare organic farm in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, which is one hour's drive from Shanghai and close to the conglomerate's mainland office.

The farm has since been supplying the two restaurant brands created by Ho, the Western-style Green & Safe and the hotpot named after China's earliest and most complete agricultural encyclopedia, Qi Min Yao Shu. It dates back to the fifth century.

Now three years later, in a market that is highly saturated and divided among the spicy Sichuan pot, the luxury Hong Kong seafood pot, and the emerging Chaoshan beef pot, Qi Min opens a third location earlier this year and has been more fastidious about the philosophy of eating seasonally.

Offering mainly vegetables, the printed menu changes as frequently as once every two months, which still doesn't quite keep up with "the pace of nature", as the management team says with a bit of regret.

"Very nice organic hot pot, served individually," writes Kenny T in an online review of the original location. "Mushrooms fresh on stem. Every evening at 7:30 pm, play a dice game with the wait staff, win to earn extra dish, lose & drink a glass of beer. Fun!"