More food of China

[Matt]

A quick stop a Japanese chain restaurant near my hotel in Chengdu.

Thai style springrolls.... I swear that plum sauce they provided was ketchup. Maybe that's what the Japanese use.


What I stopped in for... fried Japanese style beef dumplings... with vinegar/say sauce for dipping... delicious.

[Matt]

I saw these through a [strike]pet store[/strike] seafood supply store window

[Matt]

Had some ice cream at a San Francisco franchise that was on some tourist street in Chengdu.



See any flavors that wouldn't go over well in the states? I see 2.


Nothing out of the ordinary here.

[Matt]

Two boys wait for the candy artist to make them a dragon lollipop. Pay 40 yuan, spin the wheel and the man crafts out a shape with molten sugar. Pay extra to get some color added. Pay even more to get a 3D sugar sculpture (you can see a potted plant made out of sugar in the corner of the pic)


A man tosses balls of dough across a drum, lined with symbols, which produce crowd-attracting beat, before landing into a nutty-sugary powder that coats them before they are dropped onto a package and sold.


I didn't know what I was eating at the time, but apparently under a nice coating of chilies and peanuts, there's pig lung sitting on a bed of rice noodles. Not a bad snack. It was a little spongy/rubbery.


Sweet sticky-rice (you can get these in the USA easily)


Yes! trays of my favorite Chinese snack: Steamed Dumplings!! There's no limit to how many of these pork dumplings I can devour. Pick them up by hand, bite into them and the soft, squishy dough gives way to a hot and succulent meatball.



They have cotton candy, but I only saw it in white/flavorless. Cotton Candy was invented in Nashville, Tennessee.

[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food59.jpg[/img2]

[Matt]

Dinner out at a fancy Sichuan place

Pork back... roasted and fried on a bed of those kelp-like veggies I'm really beginning to hate at this point. The pork is extremely flavorful, like bacon, yet tender like a roast. The fat turns to oil at the touch of the tongue. Really good stuff.


A cabbage soup in chicken broth. Not much too it. As good as boiled cabbage can be.


My favorite Sichuan dish... Sichuan Pork (Aka... Garlic Shredded Pork). This insanely complex dish of pork, shredded unknown vegetables, and chilies hits your pallet on all fronts. Sweet, sour, protein, spicy, crunch, smooth, oily... and easy to eat. Put this on a bed of rice to dilute the intense flavor and you have something you cannot stop eating.



A beef and vegetable dish shown here on the left. I thought it was a standard beef stir fry like we can get into the US, with one major exception: the sauces here are not thick and flavored with soy sauce. They are pepper and onion-based, thin, and extremely complex.

[Matt]

At a bus rest stop on the way to jiuzhaigou in the mountains, we has maybe 20 minutes to eat. A kitchen was cranking out randome dishes as people scooped them up. We grabbed this pork one (damn those kelp-like veggies!!). It was ok... especially considering it was a roadside rest-stop.

[Matt]

At a 4 star hotel in Jiuzhagou (we needed to treat ourselves after a 14 hour bus adventure) our late arrival and growling stomachs prompted a call to the room service kitchen.

Wonderfully prepared Sichuan pork (much better than the previous time we had it). So much pork, and the perfect amount of veggies.




I have eaten a lot of spicy foods thus far, but nothing compared to this plate of pain. Fried chilies. The aroma these things breathed into the air was enough to burn my sinuses. Eating them was pretty standard for a super hot dish... red face, sweat, runny nose, a bit of coughing.... followed by breathing through the nose to avoid inhaling more fumes. Each swallow was followed by a rush of endorphins and adrenalin as the body accomplished the amazing feat of eating something it would normally consider a toxin. Eating hot, I can handle on rare occasions. And to the senses this seemed like just another night of pizza and hot wings. That is until it hit my empty stomach. The capsaicin just scorched my insides and gave me a rush of energy and a feeling i have never felt before. This is the hottest thing I have eaten and probably will ever eat. It was delicious and I never considered PAIN to be a quality associated with flavor before this.
But it was good, like running past your body's wall.. it hurts but it feels good, and then afterwards your body is beaten and sore, but you are glad you did it.


A cold dish of slices of bamboo, which has a wonderful texture and crunch to it, and the mild white sauce made this a great balance to offset some of the heat from the peppers.


It was this amazing meal that got me food poisoning. Figures. About 5 in the morning I was vomiting fire. For 4 days I was vomiting... oddly enough only at night around 4-5 am. No sleep until that relief, then maybe an hour or two after. The mornings would feel horrible with a slight fever and a wariness to eat anything. Luckily the fruit juices there have quite a bit of substance in the form of large quantities of pulp, or gelatin or tapioca pearls imitating pulp. These got me through the morning, giving me the energy to hike in the mountains, and later int he day I would feel better enough to take on some solids... then ... 5 am rolls around again and I'm puking it all up.

[hobkyl]

Chinese is in order this week! Your descriptions and accompaning photos make me want to try something different. (even if the dishes aren't the same here in the states)