Hot Pot City is based on the Taiwanese fad of individual hot pots. A Nobel Peace Prize may be in order just for the number of chopstick fights this concept has broken up. It’s cheap and delicious, and now you don’t have to share or fight over the last morsel in the broth. What’s not to love?

Its proximity to PSU makes this a popular spot for starving students or those on the mend, far from their mother’s chicken noodle soup; but it draws all ages and ethnicities. No surprise, it’s in a strip mall with an easy-to-spot sign out front. Inside, there are potted plants and bamboo-reed screens, giving the stained ceiling tiles a vaguely transportive look. A long, well-stocked buffet takes up one wall and is full of all your hot-pot ingredient needs, and those you didn’t even know you needed.

You first choose your soup base: vegetarian, beef stock, spicy Korean with kimchi, hot lemongrass Thai, or a ma la version full of Szechuan peppercorns and hot chilies. There’s even a totally authentic preserved-egg-and-cilantro broth that’s exquisitely funky once you get into it. Then, head to the buffet with a bowl to pile stuff in (you can keep going back). Choose from: wafer-thin slices of beef, chicken, pork, or lamb; meatballs; boneless dark-meat chicken marinated in ginger, onion, and soy sauce; offal; and seafood. There’s also tofu, fresh and frozen (freezing tofu turns it spongy and toothsome, like the tofu in some popular Thai dishes, stir-fries, and so on).

Vegetables are pretty seasonal and quite fresh. These come in an impressive range of options, as well, and include mung beans, squash, mushrooms (several kinds), bitter melon, and kimchi. Don’t ignore delicacies like head-on shrimp, whelks, squid, scallops still in their shells, raw quail egg and preserved duck egg. It’s a total adventure. Pile some on, but just know these cost a little extra.

Then cook, remembering to put veggies in first, as they need more time than meats do. Add eggs and noodles at the very end. Then scoop it out into a bowl. The staff will keep watch on your hot pot, refilling whenever needed and offering tips, which are always welcome.

We’d tell you to ignore the Americanized standards, which are greasy and unremarkable, but then, we doubt anyone would come here for reasons unrelated to the hot pot.