Food stuffs (CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

Food stuffs coming at ya.

Most of these were taken with my good camera, but some with my phone so it is not always the best picture. Regardless, it should give you a decent idea of some of the food I get to eat here. Spicy, delicious, cheap.

Meals are often communal here; you order several dishes, they set them in the middle of the table, and tuck in. Quite fun. It makes eating a bit of an event. Had the famous dish of the region last night, hot pot, and that meal was quite the experience; more on that later.

Many of the restaurants are outdoors, or at least have an exposed, fully open front, and then some tables with plastic stools out front. If one had issue with cleanliness, it would be difficult to eat at places like these. The food is perfectly fine, and they usually give the tables a quick wipe before you sit down, but the environment is a little different than what is the norm back home.

I love spicy food, but this stuff is a different level of heat. For example, sometimes I'll be walking down the street and walk by a restaurant or street vendor that is cooking up some spicy dish, and the vapors or smoke or whatever it is will hit me as I walk past making me cough and my eyes sting from the amount of spice they are using. Intense stuff.

Here we go:

One of my favorites: twice cooked pork. This picture is a bit heavy on the peppers and onions, but there is some delectable meat hidden in there. This is probably a dish you can get at the Little Szechuan over in St. Paul (I think they also opened on up next to Cooper, too), and it is killer. Added bonus: the drink next to the food is black currant juice. Not a common flavor in the States, but my brother and sister will know what it is, and what it is is delicious. If I come back from China with fewer teeth, it won't be from fighting, just over consumption of sugar water.

Beef noodles. Simple. Tasty. Dangerous. I'm doing a serious amount of laundry because shirts tend to get splattered by the obscene amount of oil used in the food. This is the excuse I will use to hide my amateur chopsticks skills. Though I must say, I'm getting much better. 

This is a turtle eating his dinner. You're welcome.

Clockwise from the top: kung pao chicken (AKA: catnip, seriously delicious stuff, quite different from what you get back home), beef dish (beef is probably my least favorite meat here, can be real hit or miss, i.e. chewy), an egg, tomato, and green onion dish, and some pork. Often the meat comes on-bone, so you have to be careful not to wreck a tooth. This is a small trade off for getting to eat this stuff.

Not a great picture of the previously referenced fried rice, but this stuff is 5 yuan for a big old bowl and so bloody good. They crack an egg in a wok over a propane burner, toss in cabbage, onions, some sort of pickled veg, and loads of spice and it comes out steaming and delicious. As I wrote in an email to a friend the other day, the food here has turned me into one of those jokers on the Food Network that sits over a dish nodding his head mumbling food related platitudes ad nauseam.

Another noodle dish. If you look closely at the side of the dish you can see the amount of chilies and peppercorns in there. A lot of food is served like this: broth of chilies, toss some good ingredients on top, serve. These noodles are killer. The guys sits there and pulls the noodles outside the restaurant before he cooks them up. Fresh. Other fresh news: sometimes the chickens and rabbits are in cages outside the restaurant. Minnesota's locavore movement has nothing on Chongqing.

Two girls tried to take a cheeky pic of myself and my buddy Patrick at the noodle joint. They were busted and didn't like the cameras being turned on them. What would one do with a picture of two random white boys eating dinner anyways?

Time to jump this post up a notch or two: that's pig brain, y'all. As I said before I came over, I'll give anything a try once. Don't think I need to do that one again. Slimy.

Chongqing BBQ. You go up to the table next to the grill and pick out a bunch of ingredients and put the into a basket. They take it all, BBQ it, put a shocking amount of spice on it, and serve it up. So good. Eggplant on the left. On the right is chicken, lamb, quail eggs, dumplings, bread, onion, green pepper, lotus root, cauliflower, and enough spice to make your nose morph into a faucet. The expulsion on bodily fluids in public is not viewed the same as it is in the west. This cuts two ways. It can be handy when needing to clear your nose repeatedly at the dinner table, not as cool when the 80 year old lady is hocking up loogies or the guy on the bus next to you is blowing snot rockets into the aisle. Live and let live, I guess.

Hot pot. This is seriously a boiling cauldron of spice. One couldn't eat it all the time, but it is one of the more entertaining and enjoyable eating experiences I've ever had.

You're all busy people (ha!) so I'll let you go about your days. I'm going to eat some pepto.