REALLY Basic Chinese

It was Saturday night and once again, we had the opportunity to enjoy a new experience with dinner. Our local Engineering Manager, Jiang Ke had come over to the hotel to meet us and asked if we had ever been to “Restaurant Street”? Since we had not and since we were looking for a new place to try out, he said he would take us there. It is located along the River in Old Downtown.
A quick taxi ride and we found ourselves standing on the sidewalk – perhaps the only Westerner to have graced this section of town. Actually, I’m sure others have been here, but I would bet not many. I had pretty much guessed the location based on some earlier excursions, but had not actually walked down the street itself. Now if you remember a few posts back I wrote about the night we had “basic” Chinese? Well, this is REALLY basic Chinese.
Each “restaurant” is no more than a concrete room maybe 12’ x 12’ that most likely serves as a storage room when they are closed because all of the cooking, cleaning, and serving occurs out on the sidewalk. There are probably 20 of these little kiosks along the street next to each other (hence the name Restaurant Street).
We walked along all of them to see who was cooking what. I’m sure its all based on whatever the owner had bought that day, so one place was cooking chicken, another pork, another fish, etc. Of course, they cook other things as well, but it sort of appeared that each location had their special-of-the-day. We just strolled along and got a great up-close-and-entirely-too-personal overview of the ambiance and process. Each owner is calling out to us (loudly, I might add) while trying to convince us that theirs was the best and we enjoyed the culinary competition they presented. Each place was set up on the sidewalk with a cooking station of gas stoves, charcoal stoves, chopping blocks, a table full of spices and other ingredients. Washing occurs on the street (yes, they were using soap and boiled water, and yes, that picture to the left is a dish of soapy water with mop next to a dish of raw chickens sitting on the ground). Dirty water is dumped out on the street and there are several piles of garbage sitting around. A small truck of live pigs passed us probably headed for delivery to someone's kiosk there.
We finally decided on a particular place (for no real reason other than they had the best looking chicken and the location was pretty much mid-street providing the best view of all the crazy action going on).
Across the street there are small tables set up for dining and since it is cold and wet right now, they have put up small tents over the tables. The chairs are small plastic seats that required a little wriggling to fit our big American hind-sides into and we prayed they would support our big American masses. Fortunately, Jiang Ke handled the language issues and we ordered chicken, a fish, a fresh water eel, some green beans, eggplant with garlic, some sort of scrambled egg with mushroom, fried potatoes, and some fried rice. All of which comes cooked with the obligatory peppers. What would a meal be without peppers?
As you can see from the pictures, the whole area would be defined as “sanitarily challenged” so we were amused and yet appreciative at the subtle display of sanitary precautions they employ to propagate the ruse of cleanliness. For example, when our bowls, plates, glasses, and chopsticks are brought to the table, they are in a large bowl that the waitress then pours bowling water over and swishes around before placing in front of us. Of course the fact that her hands look like she had been gardening all day was to be ignored.
Now, I admit, had we found this street on our own we would have enjoyed the sights and smells but would never have considered actually eating anything, but Jiang Ke ensured us it would be OK, and we found it to be very good. We can do this again in the future now that we have learned how it’s done.
And of course, the food was in fact delicious! The eel was really good in the manner it was wok fried in oil with peppers (much better than the Hot-Pot style I have eaten before). The chicken had good sized meaty pieces and the fish was excellent since it was served whole which makes the bone-picking much easier. I am not one for enjoying eggplant, but cooked with the garlic and peppers this dish is really good and we eat a lot of it here. The fried rice came last and we got up and went and watched the chef (the owner’s son, I think) cook it for us (the video has not been successful in uploading - I will try when return to USA with real internet ... stay tuned). That’s him with me in the picture.
So once again, we ate wonderful food and were treated as VIPs and the eight dishes along with some drinks came to about $42.00 for six people! Only in China can you eat this good for this little money.
Jiang Ke had asked if we enjoyed it and we said yes, but that a final decision would not be rendered until the next morning based on how everyone, um, survived the night. It’s Sunday morning as I write this and Drew and I survived the night, so we gave it two thumbs up! We will go back here again and I am sure they will remember us (duh).
I did notice the irony in that at the entrance of the street was a pharmacy. But we didn’t need it. We have had basic Chinese and now we have had REALLY basic Chinese.