On 1 Aug 2005 11:11:46 -0700, "Gary" > wrote:

>Hi Richard,
>
>As Bob and others have already described the Mongolian Hot Pot , I'll
>just add my two cents (only US, alas, not even Euro). The Mongolian Hot
>Pot was briefly fashionable in the US a couple of decades ago -- when
>people learned that it could be the centerpiece, literally, of social
>events -- rather like the earlier fondue fad.
>
>Large numbers of inexpensive brass Hot Pots were imported, most --
>again like the fondue sets that so many people received as wedding
>gifts -- were never used. I occasionally see them in garage sales,
>often in their original boxes.
>
>Gary

.. . . the used brass ones sold in garage sales by children whose
parents died young of copper poisoning. The used aluminium ones by
children who can't remember where they got them from.