A Meal to Remember!

As I sit and watch yet another city(Chengdu) disappear beneath me, I cannot wait to get to our new destination(Jiu Zhai Gou), to try some new foods and to enjoy the wonderful mountains and scenery we have been told so much about.

The grey skies that plagued our stay in Chengdu(not in a bad way), have now given way to blue skies and pillow clouds; let's just hope that it stays that way!!!

The dinner we enjoyed last night at 'The Bridge Restaurant', will forever in my mind, remain a highlight. I cannot yet say whether it will be 'THE' highlight, as we still have quite a few more destinations to notch into out well-used Travel Belts!

The food, ahhh, where to begin!   

The Restaurant, takes up the entire bridge(hence its name) and thanks to the wonderful english our waitress, Yan Yan (or should I say Shelly, that being her English name), spoke, we were able to get the best dishes, I think anyone could have chosen: Fried Sichuan Chicken, Spicy Pork Loin, Sauteed Sweet Potato Shoots, Spicy Dofun(Tofu) and last, but not least Roasted Chicken(this one came in it's own edible noodle bowl).

Now, let's talk flavours should we.....Fried Sichuan Chicken; when first you set your eyes on the pile of, apparently nothing but chilies, you do have the thought of "Oh, God, what have I done", but then as soon as you pop the first crispy AND crunchy(they fry the chicken, bones and all), morsel in, again, the Hua Jiao makes your mouth go numb, then comes the smokey, pungent and slightly sweet, pepper flavour, with course, that blast of chili, not far behind.....unbelievable!!! 

To get over that shock, I then had some of the Pork( did I mention the word SPICY), well, those green things you see on the plate, which you may have thought of as green vegetables by some small chance, were nothing less than green chilies, split in half and cooked along side the salty, juicy slivers of meat.....I didn't know which one to take another bite of, chili-bang or pungent chili-pow, neither, I had some Tofu!!!

Now this may I tell you, apart from being pot-hot, was also, as you see, full of chili oil. The broth almost took the breath out of you, as it was pure magic. The full bodied, rich(sounds like a wine), slightly salted broth, complimented the softest but not 'mushy' Tofu perfectly, a taste of heaven, with a kick from Hell!!!

Thank goodness for the Sweet Potato Shoots, as they, bless them, were not spiced at all, which gave your mouth a shock in itself, as it really didn't know how to process the lack of spice!!! However, the lack of spice, was made up for, by the taste, which was similar to.....hmmm, Spinach with Garlic, yet with a Watercress crunch!

Last, as I said, but certainly not least, was the Roasted Chicken, which was the sweetest dish of them all, literally! It too, was the(apart from the Potato Shoots) least spicy dish, having maybe only 2-3 dried Sichuan Chilies cut up into it and the roasted peanuts, gave it a great crunch, as well as the necessary nuttiness, to offset the sugar, or cane juice they used  as their sweetener.

All round, IT(the dinner), as I said, will be a highlight of my trip, but one which, I now have to tell you, has in some way, been out-done by the Hot Pot, we had last night, or the Tibetan Dinner we had tonight.....each, completely different and equally as spicy as the other!!!

Oh, do I have a couple or three good ones for you!!!

Ades

Oh, I do need to explain the addition of us all in the photos you see. The rule in this establishment, was not to allow any photos of the food, but me, being me, just took a couple of shots of the 'Family' enjoying themselves, which of course, they didn't mind. he, he, he!!!

Bon appetite!!!

Oh, OH, need to also mention this wonderful Chinese Wine "Shelly" introduced us to.....1573: Apart from I'm sure being a great year for someone back then, is this most amazing spicy, sake-ish wine that just blows up when it reaches your oesophagus. It comes from Luzhou, Laojiao, which I know is somewhere around where we are right now. It's made from wheat and when your eating spicy foods, clears the palette, mind and of course,  THE SOUL!!!