On Friday evening, we arrived in Chongqing and met up with another friend. We then decided to go straight for the Sichuan culinary experience: the hot pot. Though Chongqing became its own municipality in 1997, it was originally part of Sichuan province, which means its hot pot offerings are the authentic item.
Hence the towering statue of chili peppers we happened upon wandering around the streets of Chongqing on Saturday.
After being seated at a restaurant in our neighborhood, we warned the xiaojie at our restaurant that we were "first-timers" in Chongqing, and she assured she wouldn't make the dipping liquid as hot as she would for locals.
We ordered up dishes of lamb, mushrooms, dofu ribbons, partridge eggs, cabbage, lotus root, and an interesting dofu-wrapped pork-type dumpling.
Despite the assurance of manageable spiciness, the liquid was fiery and burning... my two friends gave up early, opting for the mild liquid. I hung in with the hot stuff until my lips were positively buzzing -- about 2/3 of the way through the meal. This was definitely a new sensation for me.
I limped through the last portion of the meals nursing mushrooms cooked in the mild fluid. I felt as though I had done battle and lost. I do, however, think my spice tolerance has improved tenfold since coming to China.
We were among the last to leave the restaurant. As you can see from the dishes piled up near the kitchen door, the restaurant does steady business.
I was amused to see the kitchen staff digging into fluffy bowls of rice and good ole' stir-fried dishes as we left... I'm sure they get more than their fill of hot pot.
Posted by Astrid at January 25, 2005 08:17 AM