Memories of Chengdu

      I think the electric cooker has gotten the better of me at this stage. I tried to boil some Tangyuan (汤圆) but the 电磁炉 has an E7 problem. Damn…..So close to eating some sesame seed balls.  Ah well, I guess that will have to wait until I can get the problem sorted out.

Mmmmmmm Tangyuan...a tasty treat 

(Once I get the electric cooker thingy sorted  )

 Anyway , back to the pictures….

  A few weeks ago , I took the high speed train from Yiwu up to Shanghai , grabbed a quick snack to eat

Chicken Baozi 

I have not seen much of this snack in Yiwu but this 小吃 really hits the spot on a cold day.

and then headed out to the airport and boarded a plane to Chengdu. The airplane food was a bit on the spicy side. This was a good thing as I was flying out to the spicy capital of the old Shu country (Chengdu).

On arrival I decided to have a quick look around so I wandered through the shops before heading to such places as Jinli, KuanZhaiXiangzi and RenMinGongYuan.

In English this is known as Dog sh1t candy.

I think I will give that once a miss.

      Anyway, I strolled on down  to Kuan Zhai Xiangzi (宽窄巷子) and saw guys cleaning out people’s ear using tuning forks or guys (in the generic sense of the word) painting self portraits.

Cleaning out the ears is par for the course on KuanZhaiXiangZi

 KuanZhai Xiangzi consists of two streets kuan(the wide street) and Zhai(the narrow street). People tend to flock to these streets and one can eat all the local delicacies that have been there for many generations. (Actually, on my first visit , I was able to observe everything so I will share the photos from the first visit here.) While I was there , I did notice a guy smoking from a traditional pipe (something which I have not noticed to much in China. I guess some traditions are naturally dying out. )

Watching the day go by.

(Note the guy beside him is trying to drum up business (The cleaning ears business))

One can also see other things such as people drawing portraits (sometimes using a driving license as a guidance)

Staring the sketching process

The finished article

or people making  silhouettes out of paper from passers by.  

One needs a steady hand for this art

Within these streets , it is nice to see those old traditions. One can also observe two holes in the wall. It was said that many years ago (when people used horses as a form of transports, these holes were used as a kind of parking spot. The horse owner could use the rope on the horse to tie up the horse while he / she browsed around the place.)

Now , all I need is a horse with a rope and I can test these holes out.

Apart from KuanZhaiXiangZi , one can view many parks such as Renmingong yuan (Peoples park) and HuanHuaGongYuan. These are cool places to go as one can observe local people going through the motions (Line dancing , singing , Dancing with swords).

Moving in unison with swords 

While visiting one of the parks [BaiHuaTan (百花潭)] , I was able to observe a collection of 盆景 (Bonzai). I never knew there was such a variation of Penjing/Bonzai trees. Nice, though.

I never knew there was such a variety of Penjing盆景 / Bonzai trees

Where art and nature collide

I am not sure if the following picture occurred in the same park but I have a sneeking suspicion that I took it in another park off a road called qintai road (琴台路). [This road is a must if you want to walk down an old school road in Chengdu.]

A tranquil site

The original "good fortune" chairs

I visited a place called 锦里 Jinli. If one pays a visit there, one should have a look at the stage where people act (I am not sure if you can see any plays there anymore.) Again , food plays a huge part in creating the atmosphere of the area. One can actually watch a person creating a butterfly (or indeed anything) being created from a sugar like substance. Then , you can eat that art afterwards (a cruel but tasty conclusion to the art of making the butterfly!)

Tasty butterflies

One can even practice their grinding skills in this place. To be honest , I was a bit ring rusty when it came to putting my shoulder to the wheel..

Give me strength so I can start the grinding process!

To be honest ,I like walking around random streets observing the local art (Not just in Chengdu but throughout China) and when one does this , one can see some interesting drawings in random places.

Less and less people cycle here these days.

It is my favourite mode of transport.

Soaking in the atmosphere

At the end of the day it is always nice to sit down in front a local restaurant and eat a meal so that’s what I did.The atmosphere in these places is always jovial (well, up until the virus thing took control.) Hopefully , things will return to normal as soon as possible.

Some lamb , soup , meat fluff , pigs blood , and pickled veg. (泡菜)

But which is nicer …home cooked food or restaurant food?

The following home cooked food did taste nice (I ate this at the time when all the restaurants were closed anyway. Due to the virus , the only shops open were vegetable shops (which sold meat) as well as convenience stores.)

rice , cabbage , peanuts , egg , and onion + beef strips + green pepper mixed

Due to the virus , I could not really go outside so I learned a couple of  things….well , I write a couple of things, here is one of them.

If you take out the inside of an orange and make some small holes in the outside of the still round peel , the peel can serve as a nice lamp!

Top down view 

The actual orange itself was eaten 

Nothing gets wasted :-)

Night time view

Anyway , back to my tangyuan balls, I finally cooked them after the electric stove started and stopped umpteen times. They are more like tangyuan gloop at this stage , though.

hmmmm,  not really balls anymore

I will try again when the E7 problem has been fixed….Now , where is the food ordering app…….