For Your Dipping Sauce and Other Additions

Traditionally, northwestern Chinese diners will use a dipping sauce that is a mix of vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic—plus some buttery fermented bean curd for a salty kick. I don’t actually adhere to that. I have friends who are American-born Chinese, or from Guangzhou, plus a few Japanese buddies who introduced me to shabu-shabu, so my dipping sauce of choice is a little more eclectic. Typically I’ll start off with some Chinese barbecue sauce (popular in the south), black vinegar, and a dash of Japanese shabu-shabu sesame sauce for a little sweetness. I’ll sprinkle in chopped cilantro and pour in our XFF Chili Oil (of course). For the final flourish, I’ll crack an egg, stirring the egg yolk into the sauce for texture and dumping the egg white into the boiling broth.