Chengdu
March 2rd -5th, 2011

Dan Dan Mian, all mixed up. This is a great dish. Freshly made noodles in a spicy chili oil & peanut kind of a sauce. I’ve been trying to get a recipe for this one, and EVERYONE is keeping this a secrete!! Arggghhh!

Noodles, noodles, and more noodles for breaky… I didn’t eat this much pasta in ITALY!!!

Its nice to see different types of chicken at a market. As well as the fact that they are whole, not covered in plastic, and on one of those terrible styrofoam! Sorry Perdue, I prefer these!

Chengdu famous Hot Pot. Numbing and Spicy all at the same time. Beware, as everything is cooked in the hot chili oil, and it is HOT. And delicious!

The Hot Pot bubbling away. I love communal eating, and this is a fantastic form of it!

Many of the foods that were ready to cook in the Hot Pot. The variety of ingredients and menu items is quite astonishing. You cant get bored eating this stuff. Duck blood? Esophagus? Eel? You betcha!

Staff “daily training” at the Hot Pot restaurant in Chengdu. It is quite entertaining to me seeing all these restaurants doing this. Be it morning or mid-day, there may be a big group of staff getting a run-down and a pep talk outside their particular place. I may incorporate this in to my restaurant some day…..

Tian Shui Mian. Delightfully cold, sweet, and refreshing noodles. Great to eat after the heat of something spicy hot!

Hong You Shui Jiao. Awesome little dumplings swimming in a delightful chili oil. I would take home buckets of this stuff if I could!

March 5th, 2011.

So I didn’t expect to get invited to a wedding, let alone in Chengdu, or be though as of a luck token as well. It was quite an honor to go to something like this. Everyone in Chengdu was so nice and generous it was crazy.
There was also the element of everyone being really excited there was a foreigner there. As an American, this sentiment has all but disappeared all over the world, thanks to our politricks and nonsense.
My invitation was though my friend Peter, who’s best friend Wei Lee was marrying Zheiling Li.
Not thinking that I was going to be involved in all the festivities, I was surprised when I was dragged out of bed at 7am to go help “steal” the bride!
No I really liked this Chinese tradition. Basically the groom goes with a bunch of his best mates in an entourage of the fanciest cars they can get (we had Mercedes…Nice!), and go to the bride to be’s parents house in order to steal her away.
It’s more complicated than you would think, as the bride locks her self in her room with her brides maids, and demands things like dances and songs from him. Its pretty hilarious.
I was told that she did not know there was a foreigner there, so when I shouted “POLICE! OPEN THE DOOR!!!” everyone had a huge laugh. At the end of it all I am still going to be know among this crowd not as David, but as “Open the Door!”….
After he made it in to the room, there were loads of photos and videos. Then the parents offer a dumpling soup. They feed each other as tradition requires.
After that its lots of confetti explosions and off to his house to ask them for permission.
When we got there, it was some of the same theatrics, with friends trying to not allow them or him through certain doors. Very difficult to get hitched in China!
With that all said and done it was off to the best Sichuan restaurant in Chengdu for a grand dinner and the ceremony.
You can see from the pictures that it was quite a display, with announcers, lights, loud music, and all kinds of activities for the newly weds like pouring colored liquid simultaneously into this design, and of course making the walk down the aisle.
Food photos were not so good, as I was concerned with eating the amazing food!!
I hope you can imagine!;)