Chengdu kaleidoscope: hot pot, 'spicy girls' and panda

The best hot pot costs between 50 and 80 yuan per person at high-end restaurants like Huangchenglaoma, while the table d’hote of 12 dishes for only 10 yuan is on the menu of inexpensive eateries like Longchaoshou. Chengdu, no doubt, is the mecca of Sichuan cuisine.

However, after a pilgrimage to this mecca, this reporter has to conclude that the best Sichuan food is in Taipei. For instance, Chenmapo’s much vaunted mapodofu (麻婆豆腐) is no match for that of Taipei’s Jiyuan (骥园) or Xiaowei (小魏), not to mention the fashionable Zaixinglou (摘星楼) at the Ambassador Hotel. It would seem ludicrous to say that the best Sichuan cuisine is in Taipei, but the irony is there.

This is not to denigrate Chengdu’s culinary culture, which is great and original. Besides, Chengdu’s potent liquor, Wuliangye, is a commercial success that Taiwan’s Kinmen Kaoliang should learn from. Today, Wuliangye is becoming more popular than Maotai, the mainland’s “national drink” (国酒) with which the late Zhou Enlai toasted Richard Nixon during the American president’s historic visit to China in 1972. With persistent improvements in packaging and marketing, a bottle of Wuliangye, 500 ml in volume and 52 percent in alcohol content (104 proof), now fetches a hefty 486 yuan, or US$65. A bottle of 15- year-old Wuliangye is priced at an exorbitant 1,280 yuan, or US$170, more expensive than Remy Martin XO, not to mention Taiwan’s Kinmen Kaoliang.

Chengdu is the home of famed “Sichuan lamei,” voluptuous girls with hot tempers and burning passion. Lamei, meaning “spicy sisters” literally, can both be complimentary or derogatory. They are often held in high esteem for their hard-working, gung-ho style of job performance. To let the visitors get a taste of lamei, our host treated us to an evening of entertainment featuring singing and dancing by young and talented girls who captivated an enthralled audience.

The city, the capital of Shuhan (蜀汉) (221-263 AD) during the Three-Kingdom era (220-280AD), provided a kaleidoscope of the gorgeous metropolis of 1,100 million residents. For all the lures of the city, pandas rank number one for foreign tourists.

The Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center attracts tourists in droves. But visitors beware: Be there in the morning when the pandas are out eating their breakfast on fresh bamboo leaves and stalks. These cuddly, furry animals are lazy. They prefer to take a nap after the hearty meal and don’t come out in the afternoon. They are the cutest and loveliest creatures on earth. One is baffled to think why Taiwan denies their entry while other countries are dying for them.

This Land of Abundance is unique in many ways and is distinct, too. For all its distinctness, however, it is distinctly Chinese, and is thriving in sync with China’s long march to a xiaokang society and to modernity.

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