Hanging out in Chengdu

Over the next few days, I hang out in Chengdu, visiting Jing’s shop and wandering the streets by day. At night I meet Jing and we grab a bite to eat. There are a lot of pictures of food with few other scenes in between. I wasn’t eating one meal after another. This is over the course of a few days. I guess I wasn’t shooting much these days.

One of the best meals I had that year was in a small family run hole-in-the-wall tucked away on a side street in a neighborhood in Chengdu (actually close to where I stayed last year). This was a well-worn establishment. Tables were old, stained, and wobbly with small plastic and metal stools that surprisingly could hold the weight of a man. The staff is family, some pealing and cutting vegetables on one of the dining tables, the waitress yelling orders from our table to the kitchen, and the cooks in the back fighting off the steam. Easily, I was the first white guy to ever eat in this place.

This small shop’s specialty is beef noodle bowls. In China, a little meat has to go a long way… so in dishes it is rare to get the heaping quantities of steak that we are used to in the USA. Also the cuts can be from anywhere… and fat is certainly not trimmed–it’s welcome… and it was certainly something I have grown fond of. When you have such small portions, keeping the fat is no detriment to your health and you can only benefit from the added texture and flavor.

What we have here is a vegetable and beef broth, hearty homemade wheat noodles, cuts of steak, strips of cabbage, chives and parsley, super hot and packed with flavor– then topped with dried chilly powder.

Jing takes me to the bus station to help be buy tickets to Jiuzhaigou National Park.

The technology mall where Jing’s shop is located.

Lunch in the technology mall cafeteria, which we would consider to be a dirty place, but not so in China. “Worn” is a better word. The tables may be sticky and falling apart, the chairs are cheap and plastic. The waitress just screams the order across the loud room as you list what you want, and then she swats a bug that’s hovering over her notepad. Not a napkin to be found here. Bring your own.

Had my favorite dish here, and although not prepared that well, it was nice to have it again. Sichuan Pork on the left. It is shredded pork and green beans in a spicy Sichuan sauce… flash fried and easy to eat. It is far more flavorful than it is spicy.

On the left, fried pork and bell peppers, fried with Sichuan peppercorns in oil. Spicy with fatty pork back that just melts as it touches the tongue.

Oh boy, what’s the story behind the photo she is glad to have possession of?

One night my friends took me to eat some very traditional Sichuan food. It wasn’t as spicy as the modern stuff.
Instead of a bowl of rice as the staple substrate, this traditional food is often eaten with a soup made with rice.
It was very dark in this cafeteria-style shop so a lot of pics didn’t come out well.

In the background there is a traditional herbal drink.. very mild and does a great job of cancelling out spicy food. This dish is a mix of pork belly and vegetables. Pork belly is mostly fat… again… extremely flavorful and tender. Yes, that’s a layer of oil it’s sitting on.

Baked pork back over a kelp-like vegetable. This was delicious. The pork was very fatty and extremely tender.

Day 4 Lunch at the technology mall cafeteria again.
I ordered the fried rice, wanting to try something tame and probably familiar. I was wrong. Rice, obviously abundant in this dish, with speckles of ground pork, are both dominated by the green chilis that are just a notch above jalapeños. This is what it feels like to be burned from the inside out. Delicious, but i was sweating too much to enjoy it. The orange stuff on the right is pickled something (peppers maybe).

My friend, Jing, took on this dish…
A seemingly tame mix of beef and vegetables over rice, in a thick brown sauce that smelled and tasted like beef gravy… that is until the heat hits you. Far more intense than my dish, this deceptive dish was devoured easily by her, while was turning red and holding back tears and a runny nose as i tried to plow through my “fried rice.” On the left is a boiled egg and pickled vegetables. The cold pickled cabbage and peppers are often served on the side and added to hot dished to add both a bit of chill and tang. I’m not a huge fan of pickled vegetables but in Sichuan cooking I welcome the cold taste of these items to break up the heat.

KFC is a huge business in China – it’s seen as quality American food.

This awesome pastry is a greasy flaky and mildly salty bowl that houses a sweet baked egg custard. I love these.

I was disappointed that this thing turned out to be like a fish stick. Gross.

And this too.

Being in Sichuan, where everything has a kick to it, KFC supplements each meal with these Sichuan Pepper sauce packs. Not to be found in other KFCs (like in Shanghai).

No biscuits here… this roll is soft and sweet and a bit dense.

They have the extra crispy, and sporks too!! Their chicken pieces, and pretty much all portions, are smaller than what we have.

These rice bowls are popular. They even have a beef and mushroom version. This one is New Orleans-style BBQ.

Well, I had to try everything…

How does one eat Chinese food the way Chinese do?

Typically you eat family style where the dishes are shared and you pick what you want as you eat. Not sanitary and certainly a great way to spread upper respiratory infections. As I liked to try new things, a party of two (including me) would get, on average, 3 dishes (often one being a soup). I have seen parties of 2 at places with the table stacked with dishes. It is common for a family to order more dishes than their are people, and bring in more dishes as table space frees up.

Rice is the substrate of the meal. Most places will bring a bowl for each diner. I enjoy the places that just bring a heaping bowl or bucket to dish out of.

Here’s a dish I ordered with my companion, a mix of fresh tofu, beans and chili sauce. It was pretty tame, almost nutty. Ma Po Tofu. Great stuff.

Pinch as much as you can with your chopsticks and set it to rest on your personal rice bowl. Then pick up some, now with rice sticking to it, and eat. Eventually the rice takes on the favors of what you are eating.

This shredded pork with chilies and leek was actually hotter than the tofu dish. Still delicious.

Once you finish your rice, or most of it, load up that empty bowl with some soup. Here is a nice pork soup with cabbage. If you are lucky enough to get your own spoon, use it, or just eat meat and veggies with your chopsticks and lift the bowl to drink the broth.

 

I had dinner with my friend, Lin.
I ate this rabbit dish… basically rabbit bits (with bone), in a tangy brown sauce with peppers and other assorted veggies, and pickled cabbage on the side.

We then tried these mango puree dessert dishes.

Chips

I found some interesting flavors at the supermarket.