Ch 21: My Local Misconceptions
July 18
My last dinner in Chengdu and I thought it would be a good idea to go "local". There was a hot pot place I spotted around the corner that always looked busy. It wasn't the fanciest looking place but I thought I would give it a shot- Hey I thought it looks "authentic to me".
The hot pot was served in a steaming couldron full of spices and oils. The food itself was on skewers and I was given more oils/spices to dip it in. This isn't half bad I thought, and the price was unbeatable (we had 100+ skewers for under 60 bux for less then 7 dollars). Afterwards however I felt like shit. This was the greasiest meal I had ever had. More greasy then my previous top 2 greasy meals combined. We sat by a tea house for a few hours into the night to get the grease out of our system.
The next day I told the hostel workers where we went. They asked me why I would have gone to that place, it was dirty and the food was horrible. It wasn't bad at the time but when I thought about it again it did strike me as a bit dirty and the food while not bad was probably the worst I've had in China (which is to say it's still pretty damn good). I won't make that mistake again in my search for the authentic local experiences. The Locals in Chengdu eat at nice, clean, and modern restaurants. NOT the hole I went to. Sometimes dirty is just dirty =(.
My last dinner in Chengdu and I thought it would be a good idea to go "local". There was a hot pot place I spotted around the corner that always looked busy. It wasn't the fanciest looking place but I thought I would give it a shot- Hey I thought it looks "authentic to me".
The hot pot was served in a steaming couldron full of spices and oils. The food itself was on skewers and I was given more oils/spices to dip it in. This isn't half bad I thought, and the price was unbeatable (we had 100+ skewers for under 60 bux for less then 7 dollars). Afterwards however I felt like shit. This was the greasiest meal I had ever had. More greasy then my previous top 2 greasy meals combined. We sat by a tea house for a few hours into the night to get the grease out of our system.
The next day I told the hostel workers where we went. They asked me why I would have gone to that place, it was dirty and the food was horrible. It wasn't bad at the time but when I thought about it again it did strike me as a bit dirty and the food while not bad was probably the worst I've had in China (which is to say it's still pretty damn good). I won't make that mistake again in my search for the authentic local experiences. The Locals in Chengdu eat at nice, clean, and modern restaurants. NOT the hole I went to. Sometimes dirty is just dirty =(.
posted by ashton at 7:22 AM
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