Hot Pots and Numbing Pepper

All you fellow travelers out there can testify that one of the most important aspects of any journey is food.  Can I get an amen?…..

It doesn’t matter if you are a foodie more than willing to try any delectable or daring dish set before you or a health nut scouring the local restaurants for foods that fulfill your strict dietary requirements.  Every traveler has got to figure out food.

One thing I learned about Chengdu, located in the Sichuan Province of China is that it is world renown for its cuisine.  It is considered one of the most scrumptious, sophisticated and spicy palates.  Sure enough my first meal here was chock full of numbing pepper.  When I bit into one of those tiny nuggets of the most fragrant floral peppery spice I had an out of body experience.  It tasted like a cross between lemon grass, clove and black pepper.  When you bite into it your tongue goes numb from the essential oils.  It was totally exciting – like nothing I have ever tasted!

The first week of Mandarin language classes, our teacher took us out for lunch everyday.  We would walk to a nearby restaurant in an area that looked almost like any other college town. From the sidewalk we walked down a few stairs to a sort of sunken open air eating area.  The seven of us pulled our chairs around a wooden table and Laoshi (“teacher” in Mandarin: pronounced Lah-oh-shurh) would begin to order for us.

She ordered the most delicious dishes!  Strips of fluorescent purple eggplant in a sauce that was somehow both rich and light, thin pieces of pork cooked with strips of fresh ginger and onion (but it wasn’t an onion), chicken with red chili peppers and peanuts, foot long fresh made noodles in a chicken broth with cilantro and spices.  It sounds simple and maybe even familiar but it was roll your eyes back in your head good.

That first day at lunch I noticed that many diners had on their table a gigantic bowl with skewered food sticking out of it.  “What is that?” I asked Laoshi.  “A hot pot,” she replied, “but it is served cold in the summertime.  We can get one next time if you want.”  Of course I couldn’t wait and later that night my roommate and I set out to find the hot pot.

The skewers are plunged through all kinds of vegetables and meats. Mostly foods I have never seen before.  I did recognize a kale-type vegetable, lotus root, a hot-dog type meat and a chicken foot.  The bowl is filled with a spicy broth of a marinade and this sits on every table all day, all evening.  You just eat what you want. Then the proprietor counts your skewers and charges you accordingly.

The spice is supposed to clean you out internally, but I decided I better steer clear of foods that sit on tables – everyone’s table, day in and day out.

Like I said food is a big deal here, especially for foreigners like me.  My stomach has to adjust to a completely different palate on top of adjusting to EVERYTHING else. Some things in China are exactly the same as in the U.S. only completely different.

More food stories to come.  Mama arrived a few days ago with bundles of eggs, various flours, nuts, and other goods from the countryside.  She does not like the preservatives in city foods.