Advertisement
Our last full day in Chengdu was pretty lazy. Lots of ping pong and reading which felt great. The cooking class was also a fun way to pass a few hours and get a great meal! There were three of us who signed up for the class - which was good since the kitchen couldn't hold too many more people. Unfortunately I never caught the chef's name so we'll just call him Chef; Chef did not speak english so he taught by demonstration and Maki, one of the owner's of the guesthouse, helped with translating.
The plan was to make three of Sichuan's most famous dishes: Gongbao ji ding (Kungpao chicken), Mapo Dofu (Mother Chen's bean curd - basically tofu in a spicy sauce, a dish that Chengdu is known for), and Hui Guo Rou (twice-cooked pork although the literal translation is "pork go back to wok" - ends up tasting like bacon stirfried with green chilis). First Chef had us do the chopping since the dishes are cooked quickly, you need to have everything ready. He demonstrate how he wanted us to cut each ingredient and then we'd try our best to imitate with the mega knife, but he
has a lot more training and experience than us.
They definitely don't seemed as concerned about germs and bacteria as people are in the US. First we chopped the tofu on the wooden cutting board, then the raw chicken breasts, then cucumber, then pork, then chilis. Allison, you might have had a heartattack. But it all got cooked in the end and we came out unscathed.
After chopping, Chef brought us over to the wok he had sitting on some serious fire and demonstrated how to cook the dish. They had a ton of spices in little dishes to the side of the woks to make for easy access once the cooking began. Next it was our turn to line up with the woks and take on the stirfry. You've never seen three people sneeze and blow their noses so much because of the spices that were cooking in the woks. Serious sinus clearing, let me tell you!
Before you knew it we'd each completed our three dishes and then went out to feast on them and talk more with Maki, the guesthouse owner. A fun and different afternoon!
Today, Sunday, we checked out of the guesthouse and boarded a bus for Emei Shan, a mountain and sacred Buddhist site two hours southwest of Chengdu. The mountain has stairs to the summit (a peak of 3,099 meters - just over 10,000 feet and we're currently at 1,600 feet - but will take a bus to a bit higher starting point!) and we're going to make our attempt tomorrow and Tuesday, spending the night in a monastery on the mountain. Hopefully I won't be too broken upon return!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0514s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sanjiv
non-member comment
jealous
Hey guys, I just flipped thru your blog (i somehow was left off the e-mail notifying your friends and family about the blog; i'm trying not to take it personally). Didn't get a chance to read the blog since i'm at work, but saw the pictures. totally jealous. it's amazing how much you guys have done already while we just plug away here on the daily grind. can't wait to hear more about your trip...