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Written by: Qian Yunwen, Director / PR, tentus inc.
Do you like hotpot?
A friend from Sichuan told me, "You've never eaten real hotpot — because you eat it with the spiciness toned down." So the other day, in search of real hotpot, I went to Chengdu in Sichuan Province for the first time in 20 years!
Chengdu is a famous tourist destination in Sichuan, with hotpot restaurants everywhere. Hotpot, which you could call the flagship of Sichuan cuisine, is an everyday food for locals. So this time I went to a place called a "community hotpot" (社区火锅) — the most everyday kind, located in a residential-block area and serving mainly the neighborhood residents.
Restaurant name: ★鸿社 (Xinghong She) Location: (Chengdu) 36 Shuxiangli Yixiang Per person: 1,500–3,000 yen My personal recommendations: yaxue (duck blood), xiaojun gan (duck gizzard), yaopian (pork kidney), (maodu) beef tripe, xiangcai wanzi (cilantro pork meatballs), lian'ou (lotus root), fanqie (tomato), gan gongcai (dried celtuce), penghao (garland chrysanthemum), shaofen (sweet potato noodles), dan chaofan (egg fried rice), bing tangyuan (iced glutinous rice balls)
The atmosphere is very much old-town and warm.
♪───O(≧∇≦)O────♪ Here it is! I ordered it as is, without toning down the spiciness! This is it! Real mala hotpot! The amount of beef tallow! The amount of spices! By the way, even the locals say if you eat too much, you'll get diarrhea!
Behold the source of the numbing "ma" — Sichuan pepper (huajiao)! But when you actually eat it, the umami is even more incredible than the mala! It gets pretty spicy after 10 minutes, so here I'd like to introduce the dipping sauce made specifically for authentic mala hotpot. Dip your food in this sauce and the spiciness mellows out while the umami grows even richer.
Taiwan has mala hotpot too, but Taiwanese mala hotpot dipping sauces tend to use soy sauce, vinegar, sesame sauce, and the like. Besides this sesame-oil-based sauce, the free laoyingcha (a Sichuan specialty tea, apparently actually made from camphor leaves) and the iced glutinous rice balls also help soften the spiciness.
And now, behold the recommended ingredients!
Oh no — just looking at the photos makes me want to eat it again! I actually ate it two days in a row… lol. From the photos it's mostly offal, but the prep is so good there's no gaminess, and with its focus on texture, I guarantee it's tastier than any regular meat!
Shanghai also has plenty of self-proclaimed "authentic" Sichuan hotpot, but they can't come close to reproducing the freshness of the ingredients!
Time to dig in at last!
You really can't imagine this texture and freshness until you've tried it yourself.
Mix duck blood, as soft as a soufflé, into egg fried rice — a whole new frontier of savory aroma!
Sweet-and-sour tomato in that mala umami! Stylish and delicious!
I was too absorbed in eating to take many photos, but anyway — COVID, please end soon! I want to go eat with everyone again!
If you're interested, do watch this video too. When I searched YouTube for this restaurant, one big-eater from Sichuan had actually gone there, filmed themselves eating, and uploaded it. It has English subtitles, so please check it out!