from Hacker News

Did Early Humans Invent Hot Pot in Geothermal Pools?

by alikim on 10/1/20, 12:14 PM with 28 comments

  • by heisenzombie on 10/2/20, 6:02 AM

    Here are Māori cooking in geothermal hot springs

    https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/40251/cooking-food-in-ho...

    Obviously much more recent, but shows that when you live around a bunch of free hot water, it’s a practical cooking method.

  • by andygcook on 10/2/20, 3:49 AM

    My partner loves hot pot, so I bought her a home hot pot kit for Christmas last year. At first she didn’t want to use it at all which was disappointing, but then it become a huge hit when all the restaurants closed down for Covid. Home hot pot has now turned into our fun date night tradition on Friday’s where we eat together for a few hours while talking.

    Here’s our list of ingredients we like if anyone is curious. Would love to hear other recommendations to try too:

    King oyster mushrooms, Shitaki mushrooms, Tofu skin dried, Frozen bean curd rolls frozen, Fried tofu, Bean curd nuggets, Choripdong Oriental Style Noodles, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Corn on cob, Lotus root, Beef (thin sliced), Shrimp

    Part of the fun is plating the ingredients before eating and working on our presentation skills together. It’s really rewarding when we can make it look like they do at the restaurant.

    After some trial and error, we also recommend the Little Lamb broths. They comes in different spice levels and taste just like the restaurant. All you need to do is add six cups of water: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Sheep-Soup-Base-235-Grams/dp/B...

    FYI that’s not an affiliate link, I just like hot pot and wanted to share.

    (Edit - formatting)

  • by stanrivers on 10/2/20, 3:07 AM

    Like, there is no doubt that humans probably noticed that hot water in the ground cooked things that fell into them.

    But, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it was probably someone with boiled water from that whole fire thing we figured out a while ago that invented the revolutionary idea of putting more than just a dead animal into the water.

    Just a guess though.

  • by kyuudou on 10/2/20, 1:21 AM

    Later humans in Japan did using onsen, which is basically the same thing IIRC: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200824-the-japanese-villag...

    Definitely plausible.

  • by alikim on 10/1/20, 12:15 PM

  • by johndoe42377 on 10/2/20, 2:15 AM

    Obviously no.

    It is a stupid idea from Jungian and Froidian "psychology" that symbols have been invented once and then propagated everywhere, and that this supposed propagation is an evidence of migration pathways and relationship.

    Same stupidity goes with linguistics - if something is called by the same name in the different parts of the world, there must be an infallible evidence of migration and relation.

    No, everything related to the constraints of the environment (Nature) has been invented many times independently. Basic symbols based on geometric shapes too.