After going numb from the cold at the Forbidden City, we sought out some hot food. Our guide took us on a wild goose chase in the blocks surrounding our hotel in search of a restaurant he had heard of. After 45 minutes of wandering around in the cold, we finally found it on the third floor of a sketchy looking office building. We were nervous going into the building, as it looked only partially occupied, but once we turned the corner and smelled the food and heard the din of a packed restaurant, we became excited.
The place specialty is Hot Pot. Now that I've had it, I'm severely disappointed that I missed having it while I was in Chongqing two years ago. It's AWESOME. Here's how it works: There's a cauldron of boiling soup stock in the middle of the table. Half is normal, the other half has an inch of red hot oil floating on top. You order whatever ingredients (or you can go buffet style) and then cook whatever you want while you chat. After a long day in the cold, this was a welcome meal.
The secret to Hot Pot is the Sichuan Peppercorn. It has a flavor known as Mala, which is hard to describe. It's hot, but it's so much more than that. It's also tangy and it actually numbs your mouth. In old times, it was used as a local anesthetic. Never in my life have I had anything like it.
I'm no stranger to hot foods, so I dove in and indulged - why not? We had an everlasting flow of tasty Chinese light beer for coolant. As the heat kicked in, the numbness and a new weird sensation kicked in. I don't know how to describe it - just trust me and try it.
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