Eating a hotpot dinner and feeling beads of sweat trickling down my back on a Taiwanese hot and humid summer night comes to mind as I reflect on family, home and food. The one perennial meal that seems to resist explanation even as light bulbs condensate from the humidity and three cold showers are taken per day is the hotpot, firepot or the "Asian fondue". Though fondues and hotpots both relish in the concept of tabletop cooking, the wine and cheese version stops short at lactose intolerant Asia.
