Angeli's Sichuan Hot Pot

Sometimes we'd make Sichuan hot pot at home, which is like the Chinese version of fondue where you cook veggies and thinly sliced meats in a boiling spiced broth. Traditionally, we use Sichuan hot pot base mixed that we buy at Asian supermarkets. But one day, we didn't have any, and Steve had thought some thinly slicked Wagyu beef and pork belly specially for hot pot. Since I didn't feel like going to Houston's Asiatown (which is waaay west in Houston), I decided to make my own mix since I did have some ground Szechuan peppercorns (if it doesn't have lip-numbing Szechuan peppercorns and chili pappers in it, it ain't Sichuan :-)  ). It turned out to be pretty decent and probably healthy since it doesn't contain so much fat like these Sichuan hot pot mixes. Here's the recipe that I made (note: since I couldn't find star anise at the neighborhood HEB store, I had to make do with fennel which kind of came close.) Also, the level of spiciness was on target -- just enough spiciness and lip-numbing but not TOO hot. (To be fair, we love spicy and have been known to devour things that would make a grown-up man cry quiet tears of desparation. But sometimes there is such a thing to being too spicy.)