China: Chengdu, Pandas, and Sichuan Food

Chengdu (pronounced Shen-du) is a big, gray city, home to 8 million humans and 150 giant pandas. The pandas drew us to Chengdu but we left with a deep appreciation for Sichuan cuisine.

Chengdu started off on a bad note. We arrived to a pretty disgusting Airbnb. We can lower our standards some, but it was dirty and unsafe for the kids (broken glass on the floor, exposed wires, dirty everything). The host was gracious enough to chalk our issues up to “cultural differences,” and allowed us to cancel the reservation. We moved to a pretty cute Airbnb in a great part of the city (by cute, we mean every part of the Airbnb except the kitchen, a running theme here).

The highlight of Chengdu was the food. We also loved seeing the pandas, and we walked a ton (mostly in search of food). We focused quite a bit on the kids here, taking them to People’s Park and some indoor play places. We spent seven days in Chengdu; three would have sufficed.

People’s Park

People’s Park is a big, beautiful park in the middle of the city filled with tea houses, people playing mahjong and practicing tai chi, and really lovely paths to stroll through. We saw a sign for the Children’s Playground and the kids were so excited; they thought they finally found some swings and slides. Even better, it was a park on steroids and ended up being more like a fair with small roller coasters and rides. They loved it!

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On our way to People’s Park, we passed through Tianfu Square, a large Communist square in the middle of the city with a 30 meter statue of Mao looming over it.

Wenshu Monastery

One of the highlights of our time in Chengdu was Wenshu Monastery – a stone’s throw from our apartment. It is a working Buddhist monastery, home to 80 monks (all of whom carry a cell phone). It smelled so fragrant, like a combination of roses and jasmine, had some beautiful paths and rock formations that the kids played hide and seek in, and a pretty gorgeous temple. We ate at a buffet-style vegetarian restaurant in the monastery and the food – noodles and tofu and vegetable stir fries and soups and fruits – was so delicious. The policy is that if you return your plate with no waste (ie, you ate everything), you receive a $1 rebate (on a $5 meal). Sadly, our eyes were bigger than our appetites and we did not receive our dollar back.

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Right outside the monastery was an always busy and very delicious noodle shop, serving dandan noodles – noodles topped with a spicy sauce that contains preserved vegetables, mustard stems, chili oil, Sichuan pepper, minced pork, and scallions – and other Sichuan noodle dishes. Robby loved the dandan noodles; my favorite was the sweetwater noodle dish (Tian Shui Mian) – really thick noodles smothered in chili oil with sesame and a bit of sugar, and topped with some chopped peanuts. The dish is spicy, savory, nutty, rich, sweet – mind-blowingly yum.

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If you’re headed to an Asian market any time soon, here is a recipe for dandan noodles.

Pandas

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Pandas was a bit touristy and crowded, but the large bamboo canopies provided some nice shade on a really hot and humid day. We loved watching the giant pandas, and a couple of their toddlers, eat and sleep.

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While we took pictures of the pandas, the other tourists took pictures of us. There has been no end to the paparazzi, and though we thought we would be a little less of a novelty in a big city like Chengdu, quite the opposite was true. As an example, we were unremarkably eating noodles in a restaurant, and I looked up to see two waitresses shamelessly videotaping us eat. I can only hope there isn’t a viral video of us on Chinese media eating our noodles.

Sichuan Food Tour

Chengdu is all about Sichuan cuisine, which highlights the Sichuan peppercorn and red chili. The food is spicy and full of flavor. The heat comes from the chili; the peppercorn is not spicy on its own but rather numbs the tongue and creates this interesting sour sensation.

Robby and Reed went on a 6 hour food adventure with a company called Chengdu Food Tours. They were lucky enough to be grouped with two really wonderful families – one from Shanghai and another from Singapore. They all bonded and had a great time together, which made the tour all the more special.

They started off at a place called Grandma’s House, where they tried pita-like sandwiches with vegetables infused with grandma’s unique, red oil recipe. Robby and Reed chose to eat the pig ear sandwich because the guide said it was her favorite. They thought it was pretty tasty, too.

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On their way to the market, they tried a donut hole made of rice dough with a carmelized sugar coating. Desserts in China are not meant for after dinner. Sweets are to be eaten anytime. Reed was cool with that.

They then stopped at a street vendor who made mini crepes filled with sweet or savory filling options. Reed had a crepe filled with chocolate and peanut butter.

A few feet away was another street vendor barbecuing whole rabbits. The guide ordered a half rabbit, and everybody took a couple of bites. The rabbit was smoky and was cooked well which gave it a jerky-like consistency. It was fantastic and Robby and Reed were both surprised by how much they liked it.

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Next, the group passed by a series of meat vendors who were selling every part of the animal (pig snouts, pig hooves, etc.), cooked. No one was really up for trying those parts.

They then turned down a narrow alley to walk through the outdoor market. The first vendors were selling mounds of fresh noodles; many of the local restaurants buy their noodles from this stall.

They passed by a woman making pork dumplings, and Reed got to go behind the counter and make a few with her.

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Next to her, a woman was selling a wide variety of fermented and pickled vegetables, and the group got to taste quite a few, including pickled radishes and green beans, and an aged and fermented tofu that tasted like blue cheese.

A purveyor then took some of the pickled vegetables, tossed them in some sauce, and wrapped them in a thin crepe to create a Chinese spring roll. Reed thought it was delicious (and a bit messy).

A few stalls down from there was a man selling different kinds of Chinese wines, but wine here does not refer to crushed grapes. It is more of a hard alcohol; 40+ proof and very strong. Robby tried a few. The plum wine tasted the best. Robby took the leap and tried penis wine – liquor infused with a variety of penises from cows and yaks. It tasted like everything else.

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On their way to dinner, they stopped by the peppercorn purveyor to taste the Sichuan peppercorn on its own. It was not spicy; just sour and caused a numbing sensation on the tongue. Reed declined the peppercorn.

Finally, they headed to their group dinner, where they tried so many different Sichuan dishes. Some of the highlights were: mapo tofu (a custardy tofu dish in a spicy sauce with tons of flavor), a thousand year old egg (which is cured and pickled and really only takes about a month to make), crawfish, gong bao chicken, fish-fragrant eggplant (which didn’t have any fish in it), stewed duck, eggplant roasted and butterflied, fried corn kernels where each kernel was lightly floured and fried, and so much more. The food was spicy and so flavorful.

I am sharing a recipe for the mapo tofu here and the fish-fragrant eggplant here (most of the ingredients are easily accessible).

(Note from Leemore: I stayed back with the little kids who could never have sat through a 6 hour food tour. But don’t feel bad for me. The next day, Robby and Reed took me back to many of the same eateries so that I could try and experience the same dishes.)

Hot Pot

There were so many hot pot restaurants in Chengdu, and we were determined to try one despite the language barrier. So we got to one near our apartment on the earlier side, and as we were trying to figure out just how we were going to order from the Chinese-only menu, the host brought over a handwritten English version. We were so relieved. We noted our order and were taken upstairs to a huge communal room with broths cooking over every table.

It was hot and many people chose to eat shirtless.

Most people had spicy broths cooking; ours was mild in the outside ring and spicy in the inside ring.

Our waiter realized we had no clue what to do, so he helped us mix a sauce together. The sauce was heavy on the sesame oil and garlic, and also included some hoisin sauce and cilantro, and was so good.

We cooked a variety of vegetables, seafood, and meats in the broth, and dipped them into our sauces. Everything was divine. One of our favorite culinary experiences in all of China.

Airbnb

Some pictures of our Airbnb (the good one). Ari made some friends at our apartment complex, proving that the love of bubbles needs no common language.

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Thoughts and Musings

Snacks. We’ve had some unique snacks. Some of our favorites are Mushroom Crispy, whole mushrooms freeze-dried and salted. Oddly delicious, they taste like chips with a mild mushroom flavor. Our kids don’t even like mushrooms and they devoured these. We also love Moon Cakes, small pastries filled with fruit fillings. We tried so many flavors – passionfruit, mango, red bean paste, date – and all were really yummy. The kids have been pretty adventurous eaters – they try most non-spicy street food but almost never more than a bite. Below is Ari taking a bite of a whole fried fish – a classic Chengdu snack.

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MSG. It is everywhere in Chengdu, added to every dish by the large spoonful. I learned this when a street food vendor added a few spoonfuls of a white salt-like substance to a potato snack we bought. I asked him what it was. White sugar, he responded (through Google translate), for flavor.

Down time. We can’t spend every day exploring. Our typical routine has been to spend the first few days in a new city seeing the sites and searching for parks, and we take it easy the last couple of days and just hang around our apartment catching up on school (for Reed) and crafts (for the little kids). Here are some pics from one of those days.

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Interesting facts: China is wider than the US and has only one time zone. Also, there are security cameras everywhere, on every streetlight. Big Brother is always watching. Neither of these facts is surprising.

Chengdu was not one of our favorite places. It was hot and humid and big, but we had some pretty incredible foodie experiences. Luckily, we followed it with a town called Lijiang in Yunnan Province, located in Southwest China, which we absolutely loved. We can’t wait to share our time there with you!

As always, thank you so much for reading! x