Now that the Golden Week holiday is over, Wang Lei, a chef at a
restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, can finally get a bit of
rest.
To cater to the influx of holiday travelers, Zhongshuijiao
(literally "Zhong family dumplings"), the restaurant where Wang
works, purchased 1,000 kilograms of flour. The restaurant can
accommodate less than 100 diners at time, but the holiday turnover
was so high that the place was packed all day long.
The scene at Wang's restaurant was repeated in restaurants
throughout the city as travelers from across the country descended
on Chengdu to take in not only the breathtaking landscape, but also
the 3,000 local specialty dishes and over 100 kinds of snacks.
Reservations at Chengdu's more famous snack shops started
rolling in before May 1 Labor Day holiday.
For example, diners had booked all five of the private dining
rooms at Longchaoshou (literally, Dragon family soup) three days
before the holiday started. The 580 yuan (US$74) fee was no
deterrent.
Many snacks in Chengdu are named after the surnames of their
creators. Hanbaozi (Han family dumplings), Laitangyuan (Lai family
glutinous rice balls) and Zhangliangfen (Zhang family cold noodles)
are just a few of the treats awaiting visitors to Chengdu.
The more intrepid travelers tend to skip the big-name
restaurants to try something novel.
Guo Jinjia, an office worker from Chongqing, found a small roadside restaurant
specializing in so-called "fragrant bamboo sticks" near her hotel
on downtown Chengdu's Yandao Street.
The sticks are served at hot pot-style restaurants where diners
cook meat, seafood and vegetables on thin bamboo sticks by
submerging them in boiling broth. The sticks, each of which costs
just 1 jiao, are then dusted with chilli powder and eaten.
"It is nice to wash them down with a glass of beer. There are
more than 150 kinds of food on sticks at the small restaurant. They
satisfied my every expectation for fragrant, spicy food," said
Guo.
For Le Ran, a university student from east China's Zhejiang Province, the most exciting snacks
were the "three guns" at the food fair at the city's Cultural
Park.
The treat earned its name from the distinctive sound of the
snacks being made.
To make "three guns", a cook grabs three handfuls of glutinous
rice dough and rolls them into balls, which he then throws at a
chopping block. The balls bounce into a paper container filled with
peanut powder. After mixing them with the powder, the cook places
them into a small bowl and drizzles syrup made of melted sugar over
them.
"The name is strange, but the taste is really good," Le
said.
(China Daily May 8, 2007)