Kuan Alley and Zhai Alley – Chengdu Hotpot

Woke up the next morning and this was in the paper:

 

Off to Wide & Narrow Alley

 

 

 

Joni enjoys some milk. I avoided dairy in China, a place where counterfeit milk is commonplace. 

 

Street performers

 

We head over to the food street to grab some traditional items.

Steamed sticky rice on pineapple beds. Those are jelly beans as garnish. (The Jelly Bean was invented in Boston).

Bamboo Steamed Beef. Cooked in the same steamer trays as dumplings, this meatloaf filling, similar to what is found in beef dumplings, is cooked in a small tube of bamboo. Use your chopsticks to poke it out and eat up the meaty paste inside. 

Two types of dumplings here, both steamed. The open ones have a bit of rice to them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have always been fascinated by dragon beard candy… which is a delicious ball of angel hair something, often containing a center of chopped nuts.

You can also find some packages of smaller, less fresh, candies at some Chinese food shops here in the States
As you can see, the hairs of the beard are tiny, thinner than angel hair pasta… almost as thin as hair. I had no idea how it was done, and just assumed it was spun sugar, like cotton candy.

Then I found a vendor on a Chengdu Street making a Sichuan version.

It’s dough… wheat dough… not spun sugar… and they are made just like hand-made noodles: by stretching and folding the dough. The powder is a mix of sugar, flour and peanut dust. 

 

 

 

 

Chengdu Hot Pot

We meet up with Jing, which was an essential step in my early travels, to find amazing food. I’ve had hot pot before, but this one was not as filtered for my Americanized tastes.

Hot pot is a traditional Mongolian dish that became extremely popular in Beijing and then spread across china, developing regional variations over the years. Sichuan style is, of course, scorching hot and seems to offer less fish than other varieties. 

Traditional hot pot is eaten as a communal soup, where people select skewers of their favorite raw meats and veggies and dump them into the boiling broth to eat. The broth is usually a large pot that cooks on a burner embedded into the table. After cooking, pick up a skewer, scrape off the meat/veggies into your own personal spice oil bowl, and eat. The flavor of hot pot is hugely dependent on the oil you dip in. Most joints have a buffet of sorts where you can mix up oil and spices to your liking. This will dictate how much you enjoy the rest of the hotpot. I was lucky to have someone who mixed up a wonderful bowl of oil and spice for me. It was outstanding. The broth would be secondary to the flavor… cook in a spicy broth and everything you eat will carry that spice. It doesn’t remain strong, but it is detectable. I found the solid foods that are boiled in the pot to be primarily for texture. When done with the solids, pour some of that flavor-filled broth into your oil bowl and drink. 

Modern hot pot gives diners their own personal flat-top burner and pot of broth. Order dishes of meats and veggies off of a menu and pick up individual pieces of the raw ingredients up with your chopsticks and mix into your broth. (Just be sure to cook your chopstick tips before eating with them).

Knowing I’m going to vomit all of this up in the middle of the night, I opted for the mild “Thai-style” broth for myself

You can see the heat in the standard Sichuan-style broth.

Some breaded strips of pork. The bread was a bit too thick and the pork was minimal. It was a bit too chewy. The bread did soak up a considerable amount of broth and oil, which is good for the flavor.

Lamb Kidney (the outer layer of the kidney)… I asked for lamb… I get this.  I wasn’t opposed to eating it… I guess if i HAD to eat an internal organ, it would be liver or kidney.

Cow’s stomach…… it looked horrible.. it tasted horrible… think of eating something as chewy as a strap of leather, covered in thousands of short, rough buds. I could barely eat this. Not as horrible as the pig’s feet fat from the other night, but this was bad. 

By my request…. Lotus Root! I love these firm potato-like tubers. When boiled that don’t break apart like potatoes, but they do soak up the broth flavor. These are my favorite when it comes to Chinese veggies. 

Lamb!! yeah… finally some real meat!… What? What part? The intestines?! gah! tasted ok… too chewy. 

Lamb!! actual Lamb meat! It was delicious, but cut very thin, like for a sandwich. When boiled, it curls up into a little strip. Not hearty at all. 

Steak!… a bit thicker than the lamb, and very delicious.

Tasty, intelligent brains from a college educated pig. Two bowls. Why did they order two bowls? Maybe one for each hemisphere. I don’t know for sure.

This one is a touch bloodier than the other. 

Let’s cook some brains!!!!!!

It turns grey after cooking. Those are spices and pepper on it, not bits of knowledge.

I ate this. What did it taste like? Just like my oil spice… a salty chili mix with the texture of that type of jello that is mixed with cool-whip. 

All done.

 

Chinese Arcade

Chinese arcades are like a time capsule. It looked and sounded just like an american arcade out of the early 90s. A lot of games dish out tickets for winning. Although no skeeball to be found, we would recognize a lot of these games. What was odd were the amount of seniors in there, tied to the easy ticket machines. Gambling has always been illegal in the People’s Republic of China, and these arcades and their near worthless ticket prizes are all folks have to legally fulfill those urges. 

Basketball is insanely popular in China. These games are everywhere. NBA clothing (or knockoffs) is sold everywhere, and Kobe Bryant is the most well-known player (aside from Yao Ming). I went to Rochester city schools. Which means ever day in PE for 12 years i played basketball instead of normal gym activities. I had a basketball hoop growing up. Joni, surprisingly, kicked all of our asses in this game.

Hey, a game where I can punch fish in the face. Perfect. 

Joni dominates yet again at some Japanese drumming game.