How to Write 烩 (huì) — Meaning “To braise or stew”

Imagine a big meeting (会) of vegetables and meat all cooking together over fire (火) in a pot. This visual of a 'food meeting' helps you recall that 烩 means to braise or stew a mix of ingredients.

When writing 烩, note that the left radical 火 should be written narrower and with the last stroke changing to a dot (灬) to fit beside the right component. The right part 会 has a top 人, then a horizontal stroke, then 云; make sure the bottom 云 is not too wide so the whole character stays balanced.

烩 has the phonetic 会 while 炅 has 日 under fire meaning 'bright light' and 炆 has 文 meaning 'gentle heat' or 'slow cook'. Visually, 烩's right side is taller with two levels (人 and 云), unlike 炅's simple 日 or 炆's 文. In usage, 烩 is common in food vocabulary (like 烩饭), while 炅 is rare and 炆 appears in cooking contexts like slow-cooking.

烩 appears in dishes where ingredients are braised together, such as 烩饭 (braised rice) and 大杂烩 (hodgepodge or mixed stew). Culturally, 大杂烩 is also used metaphorically to describe a random mixture of things, like a medley of songs or ideas. It is a versatile character in both cooking and figurative language.

Common words containing 烩 include: 烩饭 (huì fàn) — Braised rice or risotto; 大杂烩 (dà zá huì) — Hodgepodge or medley; 烩菜 (huì cài) — Mixed stew.