SEMENYIH, Feb. 27 -- Whenever I join my friends for some hotpot, we will always order a yin-yang - half nourishing clear stock and half spicy Sichuan soup.

More often than not, I will go for the latter; there is something about the numbing mala spice that goes so well with the heat. So much so that any ingredients we dip into the flaming broth seem almost like an afterthought; merely a vehicle for the liquid fire itself.

But sometimes I am too lazy to keep dipping and waiting for ingredients to cook or heat up before fishing them out. Even then we have to rapidly blow at the steaming morsels of food before placing them in our mouths for fear of burning our throats.

It all just seems too much work.

Which is probably the same thought so...