Among the teeming suggestions for food-related resolutions for 2025, consider committing to more communal eating. Sharing a meal from a common bowl or platter, and tipping our faces into the steam together, is a balm to our beleaguered bodies and minds. We’re going to need it.
Enter Ginger (1835 Fourth St., Eureka), which has meandered between pan-Asian and Korean-inspired dishes on its menu, and which may have found its footing with the installation of several hot pot-ready tables with built-in burners.
In the gloom of January rain, the spicy broth is a cheek-pinking relief, though not as intensely hot as its volcanic appearance — crowded with dried red chiles and vermillion oil — suggests. The garlic cloves will cook down to salty little gems, so don’t lose them at the bottom. The $30 minimum is easily met (if not necessarily finished) for two with a few vegetables, proteins and a pile of fresh noodles as a finale once all the other ingredients have added to the broth’s flavor.
The protein options alone are legion: marinated spicy beef, pork belly, Spam, shrimp, cuttlefish balls and a trio of bean curds among them. Rosy curls of lamb shoulder frozen and sliced paper thin ($14.95) are a favorite, along with soft tofu ($5.95) and bundles of white enoki mushrooms ($6.95). A pile of Napa cabbage or bok choy ($4.95) rounds out the meal and adds a little sweetness to the pot.
Once all the table is crowded with ingredients and the pot of broth comes to a boil, your true selves emerge. Is one of you unspoken wielder of the tongs, adding portions to the pot and divvying them up for the rest of you? Is yours a cooperative collective? Is one of you a side sauce alchemist? Heaven forbid, is there a mushroom hog among you? Who’s going to ask for the bowls or the eggs you were considering? You’ll need steady hydration, patience (nothing retains heat like soft tofu) and time to linger. All excellent resolutions anyway.
This article appears in Top 10 Stories of 2024.
