Your dinner is what I remembered when I was a child my dad will take us to a restaurant to eat the Hot pot is exactly like that with the chimney in the middle and water around it the sauce mix will be on a table we can mix our own sauce and we didn't have those soup based sauce to cook meat or pre mixed sauces for the food but food is about the same beef chicken tofu veggies were last to go in I sometimes would put meat on the Hot chimney and it would sizzle like a barbecue and I put it back in the Hot water to cook it again and My dad sometimes would ask for more water or they would put more hot charcoal in to keep the water Hot none of those modern technology but that is the way things are people will try make better improvements on old equipment and charcoal is dangerous in a close area it gives out carbon monoxide gas and it can kill people 😅 so the electricity is better and safer and faster than the old way just plug it in water heat up faster our family usually have this during winter season when it's cold outside and It will keep me warm after the dinner our kids love it ❤