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Published: September 26th 2008
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Random Hotpot Photo
Courtesy of Aimee's camera, michelle is about to try her first chickens foot... This hotpot is shameful though because they have split the pot into a spicy side (YUM!) and a non-spicy side (yuck) for aimee. If you go to a restuarant in Sichuan province, or any province in China really, and you happen to have a chinese friend with you, your friend WILL be asked the following three questions:
1.)Can they use chopsticks?
2.)Can they eat spicy food?
3.)Do they like chinese food?
It doesn't matter if you are wearing a tshirt that says "bring on the spice" in chinese, speak fluent putonghua, and are busying yourself at the table rubbing your chopsticks together to get rid of splinters, these question will be asked. It gets a little tiring. Frustrating yes, but honestly these are practical questions as I have met many a travelers in China who:
1.) Can't use chopsticks.
2.) Can't eat spicy food.
3.) Don't like chinese food.
I suppose the reason it frustrates me is that if you cant use chopstick, eat spicy food, or dont like chinese food.... WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU BE IN A SICHUANESE RESTAURANT!!!!
One of the best things about traveling in China is the food. Quite honestly, I don't think I would have stuck around this massive country so long if it weren't for the edible delights and ADVENTURES! TO summarise some of the best points, food in china is cheap, its varied and its tasty. You can get a big plate of fried rice for 5RMB (0.7USD) that will fill you up in almost any province. Every province you go to the cuisine suddenly changes, which is especially exciting when you are a fan of street food such as I am. In Shanghai you can get your doughnuts and your "breakfast crepe" (tasty), in Beijing you can find scorpions on a stick and in the morning everyone and their uncle is selling jiaozi (dumplings), in Xi'an, tea eggs and Chinese-spam-on-a-stick reign supreme next to countless islamic snacks, in guangxi province you can pop in for a quick filling 2.5RMB bowl of rice noodles or you can stock up on the sticky snacks wrapped in leaves tasting either sweet or garlicky, and the list goes on and on and on.
Without a doubt though, I would have to say that, of the provinces I have visited, Sichuan province reigns supreme. Firstly because in Sichuan, the food is the most... interesting... that I have seen in China, secondly because Sichuan is known all around China as having very spicy food, and thirdly because eating there just feels more laidback. Sichuan is the home of the best hotpot in China. Hotpot being a vat of dark red oil filled hundreds of chilli peppers and load of huajiao (black peppercorns that they use in EVERYTHING even their yaojiu or "health wine") that makes your mouth both tingle and buuurn. This vat is set in a hole in the table over a gas burner and heated up to boilling. You then pick things from the menu (itll all be in chinese) and when they arrive you cook it yourself. Very similar to Hotpot is something called chuanchuan (串串). Apparently the "soup" for chuan chuan is a bit different, but I can't tast the difference, and so the only real difference between the two that I can see is that with hotpot you select what you want from the menu, and with chuan chuan you get up and go pick out the things you want. This saves you from needing to know the chinese characters for ducks intestines or chickens foot.
Eating chuan chuan for me has become a bit of an enjoyable ritual. You go in and sit down with 2 to 3 other friends. After dealing with the Big Three they bring you lava oil vat and fire up the stove. About now is where you order three beers and then ALWAYS need to specify to them that you want the 6RMB beer and not the 12RMB beer that the fuwuyen will surely try to sell off to the lawai (foreigners) and the will ALWAYS ask you in sichuanish dialect "Dong le ma?" (Cold?) making you wonder who likes warm beer...
As the cold beers are coming, each person is given a bowl filled with sesame oil and small trays of diced garlic, cilantro (and sometimes chopped chili peppers) are set about. You add copious amounts of the garlic and cilantro and peppers to your oil and mash it about with your chopsticks until the taste is right. If you are hardcore, (which of course I am) you can substitute some of your sesame oil for the fiery liquid heating up in fornt of you. The beers have now arrived, along with the tiny glasses that about the size of a dixie cup, and this is where you decide who should go up first to pick out the sticks of food. Once the selected individual(s) have returned with the sticks, and a selection of them have been placed in the now boiling pot to cook, you can begin the ritual of the three "Ganbei"s. As far as I know, directly translated, ganbei means "turn glass". In other words, "down your glass", "Scullit", "Fondo Blanco" or "bottoms up!" whichever you prefer. Before any food is eaten a toast must be made with your filled up glasses and each glass must be downed and presented before setting it back down on the table, refilling it, and repeating the process twice more. Finally you can eat. As things get cooked you fish them out with your chopsticks, dip them in your tasty oil bowl and enjoy! (yeah, it may not be too heathy...)
So what do you eat? A standard list of must haves at any chuan chuan meal is as follows: ducks intestine, tofu, potatoe, bokchoi, eggplant, multiple types of mushrooms, spicy beef, chicken hearts, chickens feet, duck kidney, lotus root, pigs brain, pig bladder, more beef stuff, chicken wings, lamb, cauliflower, green chilli peppers, ducks tongue, cows stomach, whole fish, breaded meat balls and much much more.... The food can be a bit strange if you are not open minded, but if you are it won't be long before you are complaining that they are out of pigs brain, or that the duck intestine is just not quite as good as the last time.
You generally eat until you are stuffed, ordering liberal amounts of beer to help keep the spice at wake, and as you eat you take the sticks and throw them in a bucket. Bones and tissue paper get piled up on the table and ciggarettes are smoked whilst food is cooking and are ashed and put out on the floor. At the end of the meal the sticks are added up and the beer bottles are counted. a thin stick is worth 1 jiao (1.5 US cents) and the thick sticks might be 5 jiao or 1kuai (1 kuai is 1 RMB or about 15 US cents) The amount your meal costs you in the end, really depends on the amount of beer you have as the food usually works out to about only 10kuai per person.
If, after your meal you are still hungry, or if you go out drinking and find yourself fancying a midnight snack, you can take advantage of the second most common food in sichuan: BBQ! There are bbq guys set up all over this province, their BBQs looking suspiciously like old metal rain gutters filled with burning coal, and they will have a big table (piece of plywood) set up displaying the food they have on offer and sometimes the even have little mini tables and chairs for you sit down at (and drink beer) while you wait and eat. The selection of food is quite similar to that at chuanchuan, In particular though I enjoy the aubergine (eggplant), the funny green pea things, chicken skin, beef varieties, lotus root, and chicken hearts. At BBQ I usually pass on the chickens foot because trying to chew around the toes will leave your lips burning from the pepper. They are all made with LOADS of spice and black pepper, a pich of salt and usually, a pinch of msg. It is pretty damn good.
You hungry yet?
I mentioned "edible ADVENTURES" up above and if the pigs brain and chuan chuan doesnt get your mouth watering, also available in sichuan are cold ducks heart on a stick, ducks head, rabbits head (just dont ask for the rest of the rabbit because they likely dont have it), pigs snout (might try this tonight as it has still eluded me), huiguorouchaofan, cakes, baijiu, yaojiu, ducks neck, walnuts, sesame seeds, peanuts, jelly snacks, spicy quail eggs, pickled vegetables, baozi, jiaozi, and of course... much much much more.,,,
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