Chengdu

Better late than never, right? I hope, as I posted about Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an a long time ago, but after finding out at the Pearl's Southern Comfort dinner that another LTHer will soon be traveling to Chengdu, I thought I'd post on my short visit there. Perhaps over time the thread will evolve.

I knew I wanted to visit the Sichuan province, and we ultimately chose Chengdu based upon the Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. I won't completely fill up this post with panda pictures (well, wait . . . what if some of the pictures involve eating? ), but I couldn't take my eyes off these guys.










A red panda



I also had the opportunity to taste panda bread, one of the items they prepare for the pandas to eat:




It's made of corn, soybean, rice, oats, wheat, vegetable oil, minerals and vitamins . . . and not so delicious.

We spent more time at the panda center than anticipated and hadn't eaten (well, except for the taste of panda bread) so we scrapped other plans and ate at the restaurant right there. As far as restaurants at major tourist attractions go, this was better than most. Solid (perhaps slightly greasy) versions of pan fried dumplings, Kung Pao chicken and a spicy rabbit with hot peppers.


Pan fried dumplings


Kung Pao chicken


Rabbit with hot peppers



If you plan on visiting the center, get there early as it gets crowded. It's quite a ride and best reached by taxi. Of course, if you use a moped or the like to get around Chengdu, good luck finding it:





In her wonderful book Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, Fuchsia Dunlop lamented about the modernization of Chengdu. Indeed, Chengdu offered much in modern architecture, and even more new construction in progress, but there were still plenty of glimpses into the Chengdu that once was:

















Check out the toll booth (and attire of the employees) on the highway from downtown Chengdu to the airport:







But back to food, and when in Chengdu . . . hot pot. So we made ourself to Huangcheng Laoma, a restaurant well known for hot pot. We started with some wontons in hot chile oil and dan dan noodles. Both were terrific.


Wontons in hot chile oil




Dan dan noodles


There were also a few complimentary nibbles set out, along with dipping sauces for the hotpot:





As for hot pot, you have your choice of spicy, mild or half and half. We chose spicy and for our additions chose sirloin, tendon, tofu & chrysanthemum:











The spicy was spicy, but with evaporation it condensed and became that much spicier. On top of that, I learned that every little leaf on the chrysanthemum picked up a ton of heat. In any event, really delicious flavors.

For dessert, there was some complimentary melon but we also ordered some delicious fried sesame balls filled with red bean paste, always one of my favorite Chinese sweets.





I'll finish up with one more post as apparently there is some issue with how long a single post can be (keeps getting rejected).

And part two . . .

Our only other dinner in Chengdu was at the higher end Yu Zhi Lan, which Fuchsia Dunlop wrote effusively about in this article.

When you arrive, you are brought to your private dining room:





The evening's menu:




The promised tea service was first class in ever respect:








Purple sweet potato porridge




Pumpkin with felon herb cake




Mashed garlic with zheergen




Stir-fried tea tree mushroom and Chinese lettuce stem




Cashews with Sichuan pepper and salt




Homemade seafood sauce with spring bamboo shoots




Rose with lilly




Spicy shredded free range chicken




Black fungus with sour and chili




Beef shank with spicy sauce




Conch with colorful (fruit and vegetable) noodles




New fresh truffle with cordyceps sinensis (i.e., caterpillar fungus), yolk-yellow handmade noodles in high quality consomme




Fresh morel with Chinese yam and soup




Completely natural superior abalone





Tofu with mushroom, mango and corn




Dry hot pepper steamed sablefish





Fine white swallows' nest steamed peach oil and snow pear




Yuxiang green eggplant




Pumpkin with broad bean cooked in mineral water




Pork with leek dumpling in mild chili oil




Sweet potato with sesame




The meal at Yu Zhi Lan was fantastic, with some of the most unique flavors and interesting textures I have ever tasted or experienced. And the food was expertly prepared. Service-wise, pacing is not as skilled what you would experience at the best tasting menu restaurants, and there was certainly a large language gap, but I would strongly encourage a visit.




The rest of our 2.5 days in Chengdu was spent snacking, a/k/a stopping every two or so minutes to grab bites to eat. Street food is readily available, particularly in some of the remodeled hutongs around town. This is kind of what you should expect:





As far as food goes, dumplings/bao are hugely popular:








Dan dan noodles were everywhere too, served in portable paper cups, perfect when you're on the go. I tried at least five different versions outside of the one at Huangcheng Laoma, all good but small differences in terms of the pork, the amount of Sichuan peppercorns, oil and liquid (though all were less brothy than what I'm used to here). Check a couple of them out:










You can't go 10 feet in Chengdu without seeing someone gnawing on a fiery rabbit's head. They're everywhere and seemed to be the most popular item. Watching the mess people make of them can be stressful even for the non-eater. I tried it and while the fiery flavor didn't scare me away, the mess I began to make sure did. I never did much damage.





Spicy potatoes were just as prevalent as they were in Xi'an. I'm kind of surprised this trend as not taken over here, at least in terms of available toppings.







This spicy tofu was everywhere too:





And yet more food pics from Chengdu:



















I was a little disappointed that we didn't have more time to explore the Tibetan district. There were many stores, markets, restaurants, and even folks selling yak butter on the street. If you have time, it's definitely worth exploring. Here's one pic from the district:

And now I want food.
Gorgeous post and Squeeeee... Pandas!

The posts about China made on LTH over the past few years comprise a mind-boggling body of work. The quality has been so high that I almost feel obligated to go to China at some point to take advantage of all of the fascinating insights. The photographs themselves are like something from an art exhibit.

Yu Zhi Lan looks incredible and i definitely want to be eating whatever this is

Fantastic pics, BR! I love your coverage of the details of your dinner at Yu Zhi Lan! Very dedicated of you to document everything fully! I am wondering how you learned of the Tibetan part of town. We saw some Tibetans, but did not hear that there was a neighborhood with many Tibetans living there. Out of curiosity - did you find taxis or did you walk or take the bus? Chengdu navigation was a bit of a challenge after we parted from our terrific guide from Lotus Tours. We had some trouble making ourselves understood by drivers we hailed, even though we had written directions in Mandarin. According to some friends with experience outside the coastal cities of China, it is possible that the drivers did not read or at least did not read Mandarin. We left with sore feet, but it was worth it. You have inspired me to post some pics, but your great shots of the pandas put mine to shame! Thank you, but now I am craving some Dan Dan Noodles. Must head to Joy Luck Buffet in STL for an approximation.

Great post BR. Thank you for sharing and it definitely gives some ideas for our upcoming Chengdu trip.

Thank you all for the compliments - glad to hear you've enjoyed. I'll get to the rural area of China (Yangshuo/Longsheng) soon and that will finish up my posts.

Alek, Pretty sure it was tendon . . . spicy, delicious tendon (albeit a tad dry if I recall correctly), but you know, the language gap . . . my Waygo app works great with printed words. I have gone out on a limb and ordered a listening device to translate but I don't know when I'll be receiving it. Anyway, I also had some stir-fried yak but this was definitely different (and tastier).

Josephine, I can't recall where I read about the Tibetan district, but if you search on Google, you'll find a number of entries. There were many shops, restaurants, and monks, but it's really not a huge area geographically.

In terms of getting around, it was much easier in Shanghai and Beijing in that the subway is far more expansive in both cities. The Chengdu subway system is expanding but still a bit limited so we often took taxis. But note, a couple of times we ran into this situation where drivers wouldn't take us where we were going because we weren't going far enough to justify the trip (I think that was the issue). This happened even as our upscale hotel was trying to arrange a taxi for us to go to Yu Zhi Lan . . . and then we had to pay a surcharge for some reason and arrived about 10-15 minutes late as a result.

Luckily, this is not a problem when you're going to the panda center . . . though unfortunately our driver decided to have a phone call for 20 or so minutes in which she spent 19 or so minutes screaming at the top of her lungs. Oh well.

And have a great trip botd . . . can I squeeze in the suitcase?