Colorful names, tasty food

When I’m on the road in China, this is a typical meal out. It cost 50 yuan for two people, which is close to $7 US. The meal seen above is from a simple restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan’s provincial capital, where I was late last week.

There are four dishes. My favorite is called “Ants Climbing Trees.” It’s the dish you see my office assistant, Fan Linjun, sampling above. The dish has rice noodles and little bits of ground pork. Best I can figure, when you use chopsticks to pick up noodles, the bits of pork look like little ants climbing up a tree trunk.

The big soup bowl contains “Sour Vegetable Fish,” a tangy freshwater fish in broth. Behind it is “Three Frangrances Bean Curd Flower,” a soft tofu dish. The greens are “White Oil Vegetable.” I couldn’t figure out what kind of greens they were. That is often the case for me in China.

I prefer to be with native Chinese when dining out at Chinese restaurants. Menus are generally massive, with lots of local specialties and odd names.

Ants Climbing Trees, anyone?

Comments

[China Law Blog]

You are one lucky man. I would kill for Sichuan food in Sichuan right about now.

[Lillian]

Hey! You have a good taste! I'm glad you like "Ants Climbing Trees". You know what? I'm a native Chengdu resident. The greens in“White Oil Vegetable”may vary from restaurant to restaurant and from season to season.

[Treehouse Cityguide]

That looks like a lot of food for two people

[Tim J]

Actually, it was too much food. We didn't eat it all. Speaking of food, anybody have good suggestions on how to eat unpeeled shrimp with chopsticks? I've seen some Chinese pop the whole shrimp in their mouths, then delicately use their chopsticks to put the peel back on their plates. But I think I've seen others actually unpeel with the chopsticks, a feat beyond my chopstick ability...

[davesgonechina]

I think it's 蚂蚁上树, ma3 yi3 shang4 shu4. But that's just what Baidu says.

[ts]

I look at food inside the picture, hmmm, that probaly are some local no-name dishes from Chendu. Ants Climbing Trees? - never tried that. Nevertheless, for 7 bucks for two, China is heaven of common people.

-ts