Chongqing Hotpot has long been a standard kind of restaurant meal. You may enjoy choosing your own ingredients and adding them to the pot yourself to make a kind of soup or stew in the pot on the table in front you. People usually want red soup broth that is full of red pepper or a clear soup broth.
There are only two types of soup for a hot pot- one is Spicy and the other is not spicy (usually white in color). The base of the soup (either spicy or non spicy) varies from restaurant to restaurant- it is usually bone soup but chicken soup is also common. The flavored oil dip is NOT castor oil- it's sesame oil. And it can be 'dressed' up in a variety of ways according to your tastes- using vinegar, chicken powder, cilantro, chives, or a number of different things that are offered. If you have a mixed group- meaning some don't eat really spicy food...there are special pots with a divider in the middle and you can have both the non spicy and spicy soup. Usually if it's mixed- even the Chongqing people will boil vegetables in the non spicy side to cook them...and then just quickly dip them in the spicy side for more flavors.