Even though we didn't directly enter Sichuan Province, we had more than a small taste of Sichuan cuisine. It's a very popular style of food within China and globally and as fans of spicy flavours, Marc and I found ourselves gravitating towards Sichuan restaurants quite often.
Hot pot buffet
My weakness is hot pot. We had hot pot of many occasions throughout China but I figured I'd write about it here as Chongqing was the most geographically authentic. Chongqing used to be the capital of Sichuan before it grew and bloomed into a giant city worthy of its own governance. We spent a day exploring Chongqing city before boarding a Yangtze River cruise liner.
The hot pot restaurant our guide in Chongqing took us to was buffet style, including all you can drink beer. We stayed there until the restaurant shut its lights around us.
My favourite...
You can definitely say we ate and drank our fill. I like a bit of spice but I like being able to control the degree of heat so we chose a half and half style of soup base. The white portion was a pork broth and the red portion was murderously spicy.
Yangtze Two
Later in the day we checked into our cruise ship, Yangtze Two. I'd never been on a cruise before and even though I believe this is considered a 'baby ship' compared with ocean liners, it ignited my interest in cruise holidays. It was overall, an interesting and fun experience. Food on the Yangtze cruise ship was all inclusive and decent but not very exciting.
Small boat off shore excursion
We were kept very full with an array of westernised Chinese dishes that were mild and palate-friendly to all. Let's just say it was a big contrast from the tongue-numbing my spicy hot pot we tasted earlier in our trip. Food and drink aside, we enjoyed the lovely scenery along the Yangtze River, third longest in the world including the below shot of Three Gorges which is featured on the ten yuan note.
One of the three gorges
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