Shuang Shuang’s Chinese hot-pot shake up

Five top London chefs offer their take on the signature dish

While five is considered a lucky number in Chinese astrology, it also has another significance at Shuang Shuang, the hot-pot restaurant in London’s Chinatown where guests turn chef to create their own hot pot with the potential outcome of five million different dishes.

To narrow this down, five, naturally, of London’s top chefs will be creating their own signature hot pots (£14.50) available for a month at a time (20th of the month to 19th of the following month).  The founder of Shuang Shuang, Fah Sundravorakul, has teamed up with Neil Rankin, the chef behind Smokehouse; Uyen Luu, blogger, author of My Vietnamese Kitchen and famed supper club host; Sandia Chang of Bubbledogs and Kitchen Table; and finally Andy Oliver and Mark Dobbie, the team behind Som Saa, to showcase their own interpretation of the thousands-of-years-old hot pot.

Mid July sees the first hot pot designed by meat-master Rankin, whose blood, bones and umami beef broth will be accompanied with bone marrow, Clonakilty black pudding, brisket point and shiitake mushrooms, followed by a sweet Tam fruit salad.  

After a month’s gap, in September Luu will be fusing Chinese tradition with Vietnamese flavours in the form of a sweet and sour fish broth, topped with herbal leaves, lettuce and rice paper – so guests can cook their ingredients in the simmering pot before wrapping them into a summer-style roll.

On to October, and Oliver and Dobbie will bring authentic Thai flavours to the boil with a kuai tiao ruea noodle soup, a deeply flavoured broth topped with beansprouts, rice noodles, Thai basil and pork balls.

Rounding off the series in November, Chang will make her mark on hot pot’s history with a vegetarian roasted corn broth.

High fives all round.