Here I sit on the plane to Chengdu, seat belt fastened tight, as the air up here has it's mind set on shaking the plane!!! Below, nothing but the newly harvested fields of wheat, hence the local populations love affair with noodles, dumplings and anything flour based. Seeing Xian a few miles behind, amid thousands of fields, makes me realize not just how vast this country is, but too, the amount of food needed to feed its now more than 1billion mouths!!!
Speaking of mouths, makes me think of dumplings(I should just say food), which gives me a pleasure that I can't really explain! Why is it that for someone, who apparently didn't eat that much as a kid and was picky to boot(Thanks Mom, for that enlightening piece of information), would I now want to regale you with yet another tasty tale? Who knows, but here I go.....
Tucked away in the Muslim section of Xian sits an old restaurant with 5 floors of kitchens, all of which, emitting different smells. The entry level is a bustling stainless steel top tabled maze, with a food bar displaying an array of dishes the likes of which I have never seen before and for some of them, rather not know!!!
One platter that I could recognize, was the tiniest pigs feet, neatly stacked and roasted to perfection. Another, filled with translucent noodles with mouth numbing spice(I will get you the name, but until then, enjoy the picture!).
We as tourists or 'Round Eyes'(as we're affectionately known), were ushered to the 3rd floor, whose tables were covered with paper cloths, topped with plastic(think cling film draped table tops), where we, after clumsily flipping through the menu(thankfully filled with pictures), ordered an array of soup filled dumplings. I know I've spoken of these before, however, as we're in the Szechaun Province, the taste is completely different. The Beijing ones were, should we say the City variety, whereas these, were their country cousins!!!
(Oops, must stop, plane starting it's descent)
O.M.G. This is beautiful, the difference in terrain between the two cities is unbelievable, Xian was dry and brown(well actually straw coloured as that's what I was looking at) and Chengdu is amazingly green. Water everywhere and paddy fields, I can actually see people working the fields and the terraced hills are like patchwork quilts to the eye.....wil continue on terra-firma!
Sitting here at the Shangri-la Hotel, Chengdu.....ahhh, modern, clean and with the most amazing food on the Concierge floor, tonight's selection, Middle Eastern, funny as I'm about to continue with the food from Muslim Street.
I digress.....
The dumplings, a beef and onion, a pepper beef(again, with the mind, oops, mouth numbing spice), a vegetable and shrimp and a full flavoured mutton(for those of you who have never eaten mutton, think mama, NOT baba sheep), were all filled with piping 'HOT' broth, which at first made them almost impossible to eat, but tuck in we did.....delish! I must apologize for the somewhat lack-luster photos of them, but unfortunately, I realized a tad too late that I hadn't taken any, at least I got one; there you go.
We then strolled through the street, with bellies full and made a few purchases. As you can see, the streets are REALLY small, reminding me of markets you might find in of all places, the Middle East, maybe that's why it's called Muslim Street!!!
Tomorrow we're off to the panda Preserve, where hopefully we'll be able to interact with the National Treasure of this beautiful Land! Until then, I hope you enjoy reading about the food, at least half as much, as I enjoy both the eating and telling you about it.
Ades
Oh, tomorrow, we're also going for some spicy food at a HUGE restaurant, that sits on a bridge, right outside our window, 20 stories down!!!
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