[photo] 锅魁
Sunday, 4. October 2009, 11:14:10
i arrived at chunxi road (春熙路) eight hours earlier than the scheduled team meeting time. the cool morning air, coupled with the serious lack of sleep on the plane, teased me to take a nap at an empty bench. damn, i am becoming a junkie.
surprisingly, i was able to doze off despite being paranoid of being mugged or arrested. i was jolted awake when my backpack, that weighed almost a small elephant, tumbled to the ground. satisfied with the almost 45 minutes powernap, i went hunting for chows.
my aimless wandering first brought me to a convenience store called wowo which only featured spicy beef jerkies and dried beancurd. i loaded on a coke to extract the much needed caffeine, before heading off to search for fuel. some 50 yards away from wowo was a stall called 乐来锅魁 and small locals were already gathering around the stall, wolfing down their purchases. this is a good start, my only alternative at that moment was macdonalds, and there is no way i will consume hash browns and mcmuffin in china. i rather gnaw on rabbit's heads - which i did later.
since this is new territory for me, i decided to just repeat the order of the guy in front of me - and i was hoping he wasn't going to order something that featured coagulated duck's blood or something. good thing he ordered a 卤肉锅魁 along with soyabean milk. happily, i held my order and hurried off to a nearby bench. now i am behaving like a junkie.
i have never had a 锅魁 before, i would describe it as a chinese pita bread. it is odd that the version served at 乐来锅魁 is sort of steamed, instead of toasted or panfried. either way, the concept of 锅魁 is simple, fill meat and vegetables in a dough-holder shaped like a flattened pac-man. i had stewed pork as my filling cos the guy in front had it. what i really wanted was pig ears along with chinese fungus.
but heck, the 卤肉锅魁 was good, packing in flavours of saltiness, sweetness, spiciness and an almost pervasive numbness from the sichuan peppercorns. the meat was fatty, moist and delicious. darn, my tongue was in overdrive. all these sensations for just 5 yuan. this is a good start to the trip
surprisingly, i was able to doze off despite being paranoid of being mugged or arrested. i was jolted awake when my backpack, that weighed almost a small elephant, tumbled to the ground. satisfied with the almost 45 minutes powernap, i went hunting for chows.
my aimless wandering first brought me to a convenience store called wowo which only featured spicy beef jerkies and dried beancurd. i loaded on a coke to extract the much needed caffeine, before heading off to search for fuel. some 50 yards away from wowo was a stall called 乐来锅魁 and small locals were already gathering around the stall, wolfing down their purchases. this is a good start, my only alternative at that moment was macdonalds, and there is no way i will consume hash browns and mcmuffin in china. i rather gnaw on rabbit's heads - which i did later.
since this is new territory for me, i decided to just repeat the order of the guy in front of me - and i was hoping he wasn't going to order something that featured coagulated duck's blood or something. good thing he ordered a 卤肉锅魁 along with soyabean milk. happily, i held my order and hurried off to a nearby bench. now i am behaving like a junkie.
i have never had a 锅魁 before, i would describe it as a chinese pita bread. it is odd that the version served at 乐来锅魁 is sort of steamed, instead of toasted or panfried. either way, the concept of 锅魁 is simple, fill meat and vegetables in a dough-holder shaped like a flattened pac-man. i had stewed pork as my filling cos the guy in front had it. what i really wanted was pig ears along with chinese fungus.
but heck, the 卤肉锅魁 was good, packing in flavours of saltiness, sweetness, spiciness and an almost pervasive numbness from the sichuan peppercorns. the meat was fatty, moist and delicious. darn, my tongue was in overdrive. all these sensations for just 5 yuan. this is a good start to the trip
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