2007 : Remembrance of China (Part 5) ..

Maybe tonight, I shall talk a little bit about food today (tonight).

Food..

Something that you already know : yes, the food is cheap. But how cheap? We once paid RMB 13 (S$2.60) for our a la carte dinner with 2 plate-ful of dishes and unlimited rice supply.

Something that you may like to know : yes, yes, yes, the food is really (very) tasty. None of the dishes disappointed us. I feel that the standard of food is well beyond the dishes I tried here, locally. Oh, I am referring to the vegetarian food at the various big vegetarian restaurants we visited.

Much to my pleasant surprise, there are many big vegetarian restaurants in the cities. Just imagine, we took 6 dinners and 1 lunch in 6 different vegetarian restaurants during our rather brief stay there. We ate plenty, and yet no matter how posh the restaurants are (they all look nice and comfortable by the way) and how full we filled our tummies, the cost is usually well within S$20 for each satisfying, very-filling and tasty meal.

But again, China is so big. If we happen to be at the "wrong" side, getting to these vegetarian restaurants may need some simple transport means. For our case, by some strokes of luck, we happened to stay within walking distance from these vegetarian restaurants. :)

In general, it is not very difficult to spot the vegetarian restaurants. We may just need to ask around. By the way, I observed that many of these restaurants are near to big taoist or buddhist temples.

In touristy places and smaller towns, finding a vegetarian restaurants (or stalls) is almost impossible. But no worries, just get into any not-too-big and comfortable food stall. The way I see it, the cook is always willing to adjust the menu to suit our choices.

A typical starting conversation may go like this :
Me : 老板，可否为我们炒一些素菜？
Cook : 没问题。你们要怎么吃，我就怎么炒。
We may then just go on to the specific as to what to include or exclude.

Alright, a little bit of details :

For Guangzhou : They are at least 3 big restaurants clustered near to 光孝寺, along 净慧路. The surrounding may appear a little ulu. But through our kind taxi driver, we realised we were rather near to 北京街 (very much like our Orchard Road) and many other specific shopping highlights (all well within walking distance).

For Chengdu : They are 2 big restaurants within 文殊坊. 文殊坊 is a rather "cultured" area with rich buddhism-touch. There is another very impressive one (枣子村) just beside Carrefour within the city centre. Upon my return, I was told there are some more at different parts of Chengdu.

Oh no! I miss the food there. Writing this entry makes me feel hungry. Mm..

Oh I nearly forget. There is a saying in Chengdu : 不辣不成食. I remember once we ordered a dish which is categorized as 微辣. But it turned out that there was a spread of red-cut-chilli all over the entire top layer of the dish. Very threatening, but very appetizing. I wonder how their dishes which are categorized as 特辣 or 超级辣 will taste like. :)

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Oh yes, one more photo which I have just processed to share with you all.

I think this is 树正群海 @ 九寨沟 and I quite like the colours.
Hope you find it pleasant to your eyes too.