We were travelling by car around Sichuan province with some friends from Chengdu, China. Shú song (树松), a dedicated foodie, and Tia, her anglicised name, found the best places to eat at dinnertime.
They both took a week off work to accompany us on the road trip of a lifetime, visiting the more remote regions of Sichuan, and travelling through wild and overgrown passes in Éméi shān (Mt Emei ). Towards the end of the journey we stayed in the ancient city of Langzhong, where we shared the most remarkable meals.
Shú song would have private chats with the chef at our Tang Dynasty Hotel, or go hunting around the town in search of good river fish, and bring them back to the chef to cook.
Dinner time was always a special occasion in Sichuan with these two friends. It was a little more difficult sourcing a wine to go with the meal. Beer and spirits are readily available throughout China. But things are slowly changing as the Chinese become more interested in wine production.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/dinnertime/
ALMOST ITALIAN 
that’s quite a meal
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always too much!
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I relate to the last picture especially following on from that feast. Is the reputation that Sichuan cuisine has for abundant use of chillis true?
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Yes they use abundant chillies and other tingling spices like Sichuan pepper berry oil. But not every dish is hot. There is always a balance. For example, the white lotus and black fungi dish is quite bland. There are also lots of noddle dishes that are plain.
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How amazing to have local knowledge to source such wonderful looking food. The Ma Po Tofu and crispy whole fish look especially good. Is this from your trip last year or are you there now?
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This is from 2014. We travelled through Yunnan for two weeks on our own, then joined friends for 10 days or so in Sichuan. I am still entranced by that trip.
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I would be too. Sounds incredible.
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Having local friends to accompany you was the icing on the cake, or the chili in the fish dish, more likely!
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haha, yes, nothing better than native speakers and residents to find the best of a country. Chilli on the fish for sure.
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Sounds like a great road trip! How did you manage to get the pinyin tones on the pinyin? is it a special app? or did you copy/paste from somewhere? i used to copy/paste with pinyin but not I dont bother with the tones, on my blog! 😦 ….and as for spicy, in Sichuan they’d say ‘bu la” ( not spicy) and it would still be as hot as all get out! Ive known Sichuanese and Hunanese who travel with bottles of spicy chilli sauce which they sprinkle on everything, including breakfast! its in the mothermilk of sichuanese!
Great post. 🙂
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Yes mothers milk. Love it. With the pinyin tones I tried to use the special characters that come with WordPress but some were missing. I do like my Chinese posts to look Ok for my Chinese friends. Bu la… not spicy, just normal.
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special characters that come with wordpress?? where on earth do i find them? i pay for a themed upgrade, but I cant even find where to find change the fonts in English? the paid themes used to come with always available “happiness engineers” but WP has downgraded and their emailed answers are rarely useful….. 我不喜欢辣的。。。 wo bu xihuan la de… I dont like spicy food…:)
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My mouth was watering at these pictures! The food looks seriously good 😀
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Wow! What a feast
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is it okay to just say mmmmmm
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What an incredible looking feast! The river fish hot pot looks like a tongue-tingling treat.
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You do the most amazing things! A quick lie down after dinner, love it.
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