chongqing hot pot
assembling sour spicy noodles
black sesame stuffed dumplings
sweet salty sour salad
chargrilled mutton skewers
30 cents a skewer
chicken in chilli sauce
cucumber salad and cold smoked duck
sour and spicy street noodles
making ginger candy
spicy fermented tofu
old streets of chongqing
sticky rice cooked in bambooChongqing Express
Chongqing is an ancient Chinese city clinging to the sharp cliffs situated at the fork of the Jialing and Yangtze rivers. It once acted as a port between China’s far flung western provinces and its eastern hub. Spices followed the trade routes and gave the region’s cuisine its strong and robust flavors.
Quite often, a regional cuisine is exemplified by a traditional dish or specialty. In the case of the Sichuan region of China, the small ubiquitous Sichuan Pepper permeates every dish. The Sichuan Pepper isn’t related to the black pepper that we are so familiar with - even though it does bear a striking resemblance. In fact, it’s not spicy at all. Instead, it carries a unique citrus taste, similar to dried orange peels, with a lingering sharpness and has a slight analgesic effect. Often coupled with hot chili peppers and oil, it rounds out the heat with its citrus sharpness while blunting the chili peppers’ full charge with its numbing effect. Up to a few years ago, this pepper was banned from the United States due to its ability to carry the citrus canker but new preparation regimens have allowed it to be imported.
One of the most popular Sichuan dishes is the good old spicy hot pot. This boiling magma of peppers, spices, green onions, broth and oil is perfect for dipping and cooking pieces of meat, fish and vegetables before dousing them in a mix of sesame oil and minced garlic. Chongqing Hing Kei Lung Hot Pot is known for its wide selection of ingredients. At first, I was shocked by the amount of peppers and oil involved but I found it slowly addictive. That citrus taste and numbness gave everything a completely different timbre and suddenly made me feel like I was indeed in a different place.
The following day saw me partake in a truly disgusting binge of gluttony. I admit it was completely voluntary but I started eating at 11 am and just couldn’t stop. First up was Yuan Rong Jiao Zi where we had an impressive selection of pork and mutton dumplings. The mutton had an intense gaminess which worked wonderfully with the Sichuan pepper oil. The poached chicken in chili oil was also stellar but the hand down winner was a simple cold cucumber salad with minced garlic. To this day I can’t figure out what they put in that dish that made it so much more than the sum of its parts. As far as I could tell, it was nothing more than cucumbers and garlic with a bit of oil but it was so full flavored, we had to order another platter of it.
I was reeling from this breakfast when I was informed that the next stop was “Food Street” in downtown Chongqing. I ate my way through skewers of cold marinated duck meat, duck hearts, and duck gizzards. If I thought it would have tasted good, I would have eaten the rabbit heads they had piled neatly on a tray. Next up was the spicy and sour noodles. Nothing more than clear yam noodles doused with cilantro, chili oil, peppers and minced pork. This was perfect street food if I ever had it. It seemed to be an intense collision of tastes and textures that perfectly suited the chaotic shopping scene around me. I staggered down into a food court nearby where local people were feasting on steamed buns and local dishes. The pan fried steamed pork buns were absolutely perfect with a layer of sesame seeds at the bottom to give it an extra crisp texture. The soft pillowy dough yielded perfectly to the minced pork stuffing within. Clawing my way towards the blinding daylight and outside, I heard the undeniable call of a Muslim man selling skewers of mutton. I heeded his call and watched anxiously as the skewers were grilled over charcoal before being generously doused in chili powder and cumin. I began to realize what was keeping me eating was the fact that all these dishes were all pungent but unique; never giving my palate a chance to rest. That was when someone placed in my hands the most wondrous bowl of sesame filled rice dough dumplings. Smaller than what I usually eat, the thin sticky rice dumping easily released the burst of sweet roasted sesame paste.
At this point, I was truly disgusted with myself so I agreed to head out to a tourist area where they had renovated an old residential area and brought it back to its former glory. Stone steps and old style wooden buildings had me feeling that I had walked onto the set of an old kung fu movie. The narrow winding streets were perfect for walking until I realized I had to run the gauntlet of food stalls selling everything from ginger candy to deep fried fermented tofu with peppers and chili oil. Sadly, I lost most of these engagements and ended up eating yet again.
After a few hours of rest, we were guided to dinner in the outskirts of the city where we came across hawkers selling beautiful tree sprigs laden with yellow blossoms. Like many places in Chongqing, the restaurant was unheated but the dishes kept us toasty throughout the evening. The tofu in China is especially delicious. Smooth and milky without being fragile, there was a clear soy taste in every bite. Our tofu braised with vegetables acted as a refresher from the spicy courses to come. Fish simmered in peppers and Sichuan peppercorns was smooth and biting. Deep fried chicken morsels with fresh green peppers was alarmingly light while chicken braised in spicy red chili sauce gave it a darker take. A common preparation technique is to chop the chicken into very small pieces which allows it to absorb as much flavor as possible. This had the added benefit of allowing you to really savor each bite. The winner of the evening was a truly impressive salad which was succulent, tart, sweet, and slightly numbing with the citrusy flavors of Sichuan peppers. As the final course of the day and the trip, it was a fitting way to end my stay with the lingering taste and feel of the very special pepper.
Chongqing is an ancient Chinese city clinging to the sharp cliffs situated at the fork of the Jialing and Yangtze rivers. It once acted as a port between China’s far flung western provinces and its eastern hub. Spices followed the trade routes and gave the region’s cuisine its strong and robust flavors.
Quite often, a regional cuisine is exemplified by a traditional dish or specialty. In the case of the Sichuan region of China, the small ubiquitous Sichuan Pepper permeates every dish. The Sichuan Pepper isn’t related to the black pepper that we are so familiar with - even though it does bear a striking resemblance. In fact, it’s not spicy at all. Instead, it carries a unique citrus taste, similar to dried orange peels, with a lingering sharpness and has a slight analgesic effect. Often coupled with hot chili peppers and oil, it rounds out the heat with its citrus sharpness while blunting the chili peppers’ full charge with its numbing effect. Up to a few years ago, this pepper was banned from the United States due to its ability to carry the citrus canker but new preparation regimens have allowed it to be imported.
One of the most popular Sichuan dishes is the good old spicy hot pot. This boiling magma of peppers, spices, green onions, broth and oil is perfect for dipping and cooking pieces of meat, fish and vegetables before dousing them in a mix of sesame oil and minced garlic. Chongqing Hing Kei Lung Hot Pot is known for its wide selection of ingredients. At first, I was shocked by the amount of peppers and oil involved but I found it slowly addictive. That citrus taste and numbness gave everything a completely different timbre and suddenly made me feel like I was indeed in a different place.
The following day saw me partake in a truly disgusting binge of gluttony. I admit it was completely voluntary but I started eating at 11 am and just couldn’t stop. First up was Yuan Rong Jiao Zi where we had an impressive selection of pork and mutton dumplings. The mutton had an intense gaminess which worked wonderfully with the Sichuan pepper oil. The poached chicken in chili oil was also stellar but the hand down winner was a simple cold cucumber salad with minced garlic. To this day I can’t figure out what they put in that dish that made it so much more than the sum of its parts. As far as I could tell, it was nothing more than cucumbers and garlic with a bit of oil but it was so full flavored, we had to order another platter of it.
I was reeling from this breakfast when I was informed that the next stop was “Food Street” in downtown Chongqing. I ate my way through skewers of cold marinated duck meat, duck hearts, and duck gizzards. If I thought it would have tasted good, I would have eaten the rabbit heads they had piled neatly on a tray. Next up was the spicy and sour noodles. Nothing more than clear yam noodles doused with cilantro, chili oil, peppers and minced pork. This was perfect street food if I ever had it. It seemed to be an intense collision of tastes and textures that perfectly suited the chaotic shopping scene around me. I staggered down into a food court nearby where local people were feasting on steamed buns and local dishes. The pan fried steamed pork buns were absolutely perfect with a layer of sesame seeds at the bottom to give it an extra crisp texture. The soft pillowy dough yielded perfectly to the minced pork stuffing within. Clawing my way towards the blinding daylight and outside, I heard the undeniable call of a Muslim man selling skewers of mutton. I heeded his call and watched anxiously as the skewers were grilled over charcoal before being generously doused in chili powder and cumin. I began to realize what was keeping me eating was the fact that all these dishes were all pungent but unique; never giving my palate a chance to rest. That was when someone placed in my hands the most wondrous bowl of sesame filled rice dough dumplings. Smaller than what I usually eat, the thin sticky rice dumping easily released the burst of sweet roasted sesame paste.
At this point, I was truly disgusted with myself so I agreed to head out to a tourist area where they had renovated an old residential area and brought it back to its former glory. Stone steps and old style wooden buildings had me feeling that I had walked onto the set of an old kung fu movie. The narrow winding streets were perfect for walking until I realized I had to run the gauntlet of food stalls selling everything from ginger candy to deep fried fermented tofu with peppers and chili oil. Sadly, I lost most of these engagements and ended up eating yet again.
After a few hours of rest, we were guided to dinner in the outskirts of the city where we came across hawkers selling beautiful tree sprigs laden with yellow blossoms. Like many places in Chongqing, the restaurant was unheated but the dishes kept us toasty throughout the evening. The tofu in China is especially delicious. Smooth and milky without being fragile, there was a clear soy taste in every bite. Our tofu braised with vegetables acted as a refresher from the spicy courses to come. Fish simmered in peppers and Sichuan peppercorns was smooth and biting. Deep fried chicken morsels with fresh green peppers was alarmingly light while chicken braised in spicy red chili sauce gave it a darker take. A common preparation technique is to chop the chicken into very small pieces which allows it to absorb as much flavor as possible. This had the added benefit of allowing you to really savor each bite. The winner of the evening was a truly impressive salad which was succulent, tart, sweet, and slightly numbing with the citrusy flavors of Sichuan peppers. As the final course of the day and the trip, it was a fitting way to end my stay with the lingering taste and feel of the very special pepper.
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