Two weeks ago, Google launched Hotpot, a new site related to Google Places that makes it easy (and sort of fun) to rate your favorite venues and see what your friends have recently liked. The tech press seemed to take notice of the site for two reasons: first, it’s got a nice design and is more fun than you’d expect. And second, Hotpot is a pretty strange name.

Now, it didn’t take long to figure out that this was a