Once categorized as a "melting pot", the United States has in recent years seen the rise of a competing analogy: "the salad bowl", a mix of ingredients and toppings that don't so much as melt together as mix for a blend of distinct flavors.

A new exhibition in Vermont attempts to demonstrate the same principle, as applied to a particularly Chinese parallel: the communal hot pot.

For more than a millennium, Chinese have gathered around the pot of broth which cooks meat, vegetables and other ingredients - no dish exactly the same.