Eating Out

Many of Chengdu's specialties originated as Xiao Ci, which means little eats or snack food. Snack bars used to be very popular in Chengdu. Those on the walk-side are great fun and will cost you next to nothing. Many snack places are falling due to the massive reconstruction work that is tearing down the neighborhood. There are two restaurants that you can't miss. The famous Pock-marked Grandma Chen's Bean Curd serves mapo Tofu. Soft bean curd is served up with a fiery meat sauce (laced with garlic, minced beef, salted soybean, chili oil and little peppercorns). Another place that is still doing strong is Long Chao Shou Special Restaurant. The beauty of this little restaurant is that it has sampler courses that allow you to dip into the whole gamut of the Chengdu snack experience. The 5 yuan course gives you a range of sweet and savory items, while the 10 yuan and 15 yuan courses are basically the same deal on a grander and more filling scale. In the recently years, there are always snack food fairs in the winter. If you line up several food stands on the fair, you will get yourself a banquet in stages.

Chengdu food culture is very famous at home and abroad. There is a statement that “All good foods are found in Chengdu ”. In recent years, Sichuan dishes have developed extermely fast. In addition to the Mapo Toufu, Long Dumpling, Han Steamed Bun, Dragon Dumpling with Meat Stuffing and other famous snacks, more popular dishes are being derived from the hot pot such as boiled kebabs, hot boiled dishes, and lengdanbei. Sichuan cuisine is one of the four famous local cuisines in China ; the other 3 being Guangdong cuisine, Shandong cuisine, and Jiangshu cuisine. Tourists from any place can choose whatever they like from Sichuan dish menus. In preparing ingredients, Sichuan food cooks will try to balance strong spicy flavour with light flavour to suit accordingly.  

Hotpot itself is not to be missed. Although it is said to have originated in Chongqing, hotpot is very popular in Chengdu now. You'll see a lot of sidewalk hotpot operations in the older section of town near the Chunxi Lu market, as well as along the river. Big wok full of hot, spiced oil invites passers-by to sit down, pick out skewers of raw ingredients and make a do-it-yourself fondue. You pay by the skewer. During the winter months the skewered items on offer tend to be meat or 'heavy' vegetables like potatoes. In the summer months lighter, mostly vegetarian fare is the norm. This stuff is very hot, many outsiders can't take it, but they still love to have it a try.

Like other big cities in China, KFC and McDonald's restaurants are easily found in Chengdu. Since McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Chengdu, and although it's been five years late, local people are still showing great interest in it.