We flew into Chengdu's airport and got a cab into the center city to our hotel. Now this seems rather simple.... The difficulty is that when we arrive at our hotel, after multiple attempts to contact them regarding our after 6 pm arrival, they had given away our room, and there were no rooms at the hotel. They kindly called over to the Ibis hotel around the corner and they had rooms there. The security guard walked us over to the Ibis, and we checked in.
The following morning, we got up and got a breakfast coupon from the front desk and had the hotel brekkies. Nothing to write home about.
We wandered around the immediate neighborhood and ended up having a lunch in a place where I had the best mapo tofu I have ever had in my life. Sigh, it was sooooo good.
Mapo dofu
These were the mixed veggies
Salt and Pepper ribs
This was at a restaurant called Da Xiang and it was the only one around that area. We continued our walk and ended up at Taifu Square and hit the underground mall scene. In fact, there was a place giving manicures for 10 yuan.
This was the spice Armageddon broth around the mild in the smaller circle. Note the color difference!
This was a dipping sauce of sesame oil, scallions and garlic
Here Bill is coveting the identifiable meats
Theses are the veggies that we could add to the broth: black fungus, potatoes, and noodles
The following morning, we got up and got a breakfast coupon from the front desk and had the hotel brekkies. Nothing to write home about.
We wandered around the immediate neighborhood and ended up having a lunch in a place where I had the best mapo tofu I have ever had in my life. Sigh, it was sooooo good.
Wandering home, we decided to try the Chunxi Pedestrian shopping area. It was a huge conglomeration of malls. When we exited, we found that we were a bit lost. my spider sense deserted me! We ended up going in the wrong direction and asked 2 police men how to find our hotel!
We wanted to eat in a particular restaurant and couldn't find it. So we went to a place that was up and escalator from the street. It was a hotpot place with a huge crowd, they had the ticket system and there was about a 45 minute wait. While we waited, we "met" this young 4 yo girl. She was very shy and would bury her head in her mom's lap. Once our number was called, she became our best friend. Constantly at our table, hiding out of sight, then popping up and generally being very cute.
We had translated on our phones for the wait staff....Chef Recommendataion for Pork Meat, Chef Recommendation for Beef. What we got was a cauldron of boiling red chili deliciousness with an inner core of no spice for Bill.
The "meats" were brains, long stringy bloody things, which were too short to be intestines, I thought they were esophaguses, some other organ meats, and some stuff that was thinly sliced recognizable pork and beef. There was also a plate of veggies to swish in the broths. I was able to eat most of the recognizable stuff, did not eat the brains, Bill did. Giving rise to the "I'm the Brains of this Operation" which I am hearing constantly since. He tried the stringy thing as well and said it was chewy. Everything was going ok, until I tried a spice covered piece of meat in the boiling spice broth. I could not eat another thing. My mouth was numb, and I asked if they had an orange or mandarin. They did not!
Bill is pleased here in that he did not sear his intestinal tract!
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