u m a m i

Dong Zi Kou Zhang Lao Er Liang Fen, Chengdu

This is a hole-in-a-corner shop that has a perpetual queue of customers, and is convenient to pop by during sightseeing at the Wen Shu Monastery. It is well-known to tourists but locals love it too. They serve cold mungbean noodles dressed in spicy, garlicky, vinegary sauce, as well as dumplings in chilli oil and dry-tossed mala-slicked noodles. All pretty good stuff. 

The main draw though, is "Tian Shui Mian", literally sweet water noodles. high. I know from past experience that any freshly pulled wheat noodles (or for that matter, wheat pancakes) in China will be  awesome, but this was a new high. Thick, sweet strands of noodles cooked until there is only a pinhole-sized speck of dough in the very centre that remains uncooked, so it is at peak chewy elasticity. Tossed in an addictive velvety sauce that is mildly spicy, a little tingly, mostly very sweet and beany, with a nutty kick from a shower of finely ground peanuts. This was love at first bite. We were glad to have our own portions instead of sharing. It's like our meehoon-kuih, but thicker, sweeter, more chewy, all the while trying to get as much of the delicious sauce to adhere. The more we chewed, the sweeter it got; as we ate, the spice got us sweating too, shiok!

More information from this page. Just don't miss it if you are ever in Chengdu. We saw variations of this snack at many other little outlets, but this shop is one of the most popular, and the queue is not too crazy, we got a seat within 5 minutes. You can watch the assembly of the noodles through a window, just try not to flinch when you see the guy adding that generous spoonful of MSG into the bowl....

39 Wen Shu Yuan Jie

T: +86 28 8191 0576

Ma Wang Zi, Chengdu

There is more to Chengdu than hotpot restaurants, though one can be forgiven for that impression given how many hotpot places there are in the city. It was very hot and humid when we were visiting, after 2 days of sightseeing we decided to just enjoy our fancy hotel and its nearby amenities. Fortunately we were within walking distance of an excellent local restaurant.

Ma Wang Zi is just diagonally opposite The Temple House, and it occupies what seems like a building still under construction as the facade is mostly taken up with scaffolding and the upper floors are apparently vacant. The building comes to life at meal times, when the entrance is clogged up with queues of people waiting to get in. Sebastien, of the hotel's Experience Team, highly recommended the place to us, and he helped us to secure a booking, at the same time he reminded us not to be late. We went a bit early, and were directed inside, much to the chagrin of some customers who had been waiting outside. The restaurant doesn't seem to take bookings, but they may have made some concessions for their neighbours. 

Inside, it's air-conditioned and comfortable, with booth and table seatings, bright and welcoming, with an open kitchen. The menu is quite concise, showcasing about 20 dishes, I guess they have refined their offerings to  just their greatest hits and have hit the sweet spot in churning them out to meet the hordes of hungry diners. A perfect model for franchising or expanding, anyone interested?

Most tables ordered pretty much the same dishes. As with many local eating places, there is a good mix of robustly flavoured dishes sprinkled with some sweet items to provide respite and constrasts. I loved the cold jelly with brown sugar syrup, it's like our cendol or ice kacang that we have with our nasi lemak whenever we eat at Madam Kwan's, so much so that I ordered it again at our next visit. Yea, there was a second visit, because husband loved the place so much. 

Here we found food that is not greasy and heavy, yet very satisfying and local. Husband really liked the Saliva Chicken, it was not quite in the style we had been used to, being a bit on the dry side instead of sloshing about in an appetising special soy sauce, and very fiery.  The double-cooked pork, or Hui Guo Rou, was deemed excellent too, though I have to admit that all the versions I tasted in Chengdu were great, what with their delicious bean pastes and sweet, tender leeks that complements the pork belly so well.

I loved the steamed glutinous rice with local smoky lardon, it was melting-soft and had a little filling of sweet red beans just underneath the lardon. Just poking at the top of the rice made the lardon disintegrate and melt into the sweet rice, the richness alleviated somewhat with the osmanthus syrup glaze. An unassuming but delightful dish, little wonder that it was found on every table. Another sweet wonder was a flat bao filled with brown sugar syrup, the filling half-molten yet still a bit chunky, the sugar deliciously smoky and nutty with a subtle bitter finish.

The standout dish though, had to be the braised duck-blood jelly, the menu says it's their signature. Duck-blood jelly is made by dripping duck blood into water to coagulate. It is not available in Singapore. Prior to Chengdu, I've never had it before, just that I know of fans who mention it with awe and longing. The texture is dreamy, a cross between jello and silky tofu, and the taste is surprisingly mild, and not in the least bloody or ferric. It's just like soft tofu, taking on the and complementing the flavours of what it is cooked with. In this case, we have roughly cut chunks of wobbly soft jelly in a complex spicy-tart soupy sauce. Delicious on its own, but when spooned over steamed rice and showered with crispy fried lard, it is plain amazing. If this is available in Singapore, it will be accompanied with dire health warnings. As husband is not into innards or spare parts, I had the whole portion to myself, it took every ounce of my self-control to eat no more than half. Gosh, now I wish I had been more reckless. 

We were back the very next day. It was another stunning meal. Roast duck with a sweet lacquered skin, lovely. Beef with radish in a chilli-spiked broth, fantastic! It was comforting yet surprisingly incendiary, I was literally fanning my tongue. Fortunately I could cool down with that marvelous jelly on the side. (The minced meat fritter thing was quite weird though, we left them at first bite.)

What we were amazed with, was the Gong Bao style aubergines with fresh prawns. It came with a little timer, and we were told that the first 3 minutes was the optimum window of time to eat it. The greenish chunks which I had at first thought were bittergourd, turned out to be aubergines. Aubergines with a crisp coating and interiors as yielding as goreng pisang (fried bananas), coated lightly with a gong bao sauce that is familiarly sweet and spicy, but finishing with a very pleasant tingling sensation on the tongue and palate from the judicious use of Sichuan peppercorn. That fresh pepper hit made all the difference, making it the most terrific gong bao anything we have ever tried. We had to fight (nicely) for the last bite, it was that good. 

The prices are very reasonable. Good food at decent prices, is it any wonder there is a perpetual crowd waiting to get in? Don't miss, if you are ever in Chengdu. 

Ma Wang Zi

No.1 East Kangshi Street, Dacisi, Chengdu, China

T: 028-64231923

Chengdu Spice Market

Growing up, I was not familiar with Sichuan food.

I did not know about Sichuan peppercorns until I tried mala (hot and numbing) hotpot about 20 years ago.  Now we love Sichuan food, which was a good reason to visit Chengdu for a holiday. 

We were in Chengdu for 5 days. Giant pandas, misty mountains of Qing Chen, stylistic Daoist temple architecture and bian-lian performance, these were just the highlights. Our hotel, The Temple House was pretty special too. (This is not a sponsored post). Pretty awesome vacation. 

 As for the food, well, 5 days is barely enough to scratch the surface of what the local cuisine was all about, in fact, we were easily overwhelmed by the abundance of good eats just within walking distance of our hotel in a busy commercial district. 

The Chengdu Spice Market is not on most people's itinerary, in fact on a late morning visit there were hardly any locals or tourist, anyway, it's a magical place, very Ali Baba. It's a treasure trove of abundant chillis, herbs and spices. A bewildering range and varieties of spices and peppers that contribute to the many tastes of Sichuan. Rich earth colours of spices, firecracker burst of chillies and peppers, glistening tubs of bean pastes, it was just an endless feast for the senses. At first impression, the market smelled of hotpot, but gradually we were able to study and distinguish the different ingredients. The shopkeepers were very friendly too, dishing out advice and information generously. That deep red paste is to add colour, green peppercorns go well with fish, this mix is good for home use, that is usually preferred by hotpot restaurants, on and on we listen to their replies to our clueless questions.