China: Chengdu Street Foods
Rice Dumpling Vendor
I have been getting interesting emails on the food China Olympics 2008 Patrons were able to sample lately. It’s an amusing to see as it reminded me of our last day in Chengdu, China. After having visited the Panda Adventure, we decided to go around the city since our train ride going down south of China will be in the evening. Riding a bus, our eyes caught this highly ornamented looking street that we just decided to go down and check it out.
Jiang Yuan Gong Sou Street
We stumbled upon Jiang Yuan Gong Sou Street and found old looking establishments, vendor and souvenir stalls and exotic looking restaurants. The statues placed on various points of the streets were really amusing and adds a lively contrast to the old wooden color of the structures along the streets.
Beef Pancake, Broken Hearted Noodles and Rice Dumpling
But what elated us more (or our stomachs rather) is having found this “Good Eat Street” at a corner along Jiang Yuan Gong Sou Street. It has an intersecting street full of stalls with numerous street foods being sold. Initially I tried a set of Rice dumplings (5 RMB), Beef Pancake (5 RMB) and a Broken Hearted Noodle (4 RMB). The rice dumpling wasn’t really a fave, the noodle was amusing as the vendor told us it will lift up your spirits. The noodle is thick and cool and what made it flavorful was the chili soup that comes with it. As for the lifting of the spirits? I’m not sure as it taste ordinary for me. Hehe. The Beef pancake is on the crunchy side and good, I wish there were more meat inside though.
BBQ Tofu and Mushroom
Looking for more food variety there’s this interesting BBQ stall behind us. Though I still don’t know how to speak Chinese, hand signals sufficed even buying food there on my own. I grabbed a couple of Mushroom and Tofu on Sticks. I love their BBG, especially their chili sauce.
Plum Tea Drink
To wash down what we were eating I grabbed one of those ready Plum Tea Juices for 3RMB (With plum seeds still on the juice). It was a refreshing drink to alleviate the strong flavors of the food. There are other treats we tried, I especially like the baby potatoes on chili my friend ordered but I wasn’t able to take photos.
Chinese Exotic Street Foods
It was an interesting late afternoon lunch and we simply enjoyed the place staying there for most of the afternoon. The food is cheap and a lot to choose from. There are other interesting delights there like this one stall we found selling dried starfish, seahorse, live mini scorpions, grilled silk worms, cicadas, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and some I couldn’t recognize. It was straight out from a Fear Factor delicacy which I think I’m not ready to try out yet. Maybe if I was hungry and hadn’t eaten anything before I would. But would you?
Tags: 
Posted on
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am 
Subscribe through 
August 13th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
i love Chinese food! i’ve tried their sauted tofu and pork when i was in SZ, they were really tasty and delicious. magaling mga Chinese sa flavor di masyado sa presentation. Broken Hearted Noodles? haha. ayos to ah. so na-lift ba naman ang spirits mo Ferdz?
dried seahorse? ano kayang lasa nun. argh! i would have to pass with those exotic foods. yan talaga ang di ko kayang gawin ang maging adventurous sa food. pero in fairness, malinis ang pag-display nila ng mga food di tulad sa atin na kasama sa flavor ang alikabok at uso ng sasakyan, hehe.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Naku Rayts, nakita ko pa lang yung streets na puno ng masasarap makain na lift na spirits ko hehe. I’m adventurous din on some food but I think not to that extreme yet. hehe.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
the broken hearted noodles and the dumplings i can take, or probably even the crickets but the scorpions, seahorse, worms and the likes… pass din muna ko.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
nakakagutom ang mga pics!!!
lalu na ung siomai? ^_^
August 14th, 2008 at 3:10 am
naku wulfriend! your favorite topic would always lift your spirits, hahaha. i have no doubt about that
mukhang masarap yung dumplings, most especially
August 14th, 2008 at 10:27 am
nbc, the u.s. network covering the beijing olympics, is getting a kick out of featuring those bizarre street foods…especially the skewered scorpions!
August 14th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I passed on it as well Oman. hehe
Thanks Mimi. Natakam din ako sa siomai kaya ako napa bili
Ei Oggie, cgurado mag eenjoy ka rin sa street na yan.
Hahaha. Onga Fortuitoue Faery. I even got a link back from a CNN article on Chinese Food to this post.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:04 am
wow ferdz, ur in china again!
sarap naman tignan ng mga pagkain….
August 15th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Pretty authentic Chinese foods! I have never been to China but I have relatives that travel there every year end just to eat their food and enjoy the scenery even though they’ve been there so many times!
August 15th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Hi Joycee, these are still takes from my previous China trip, I still haven’t finished with chronicles.
Yep it is Kyels. I guess I can go to China just to do a food trip there.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I’m crazy about dimsum so love those dumplings
Seahorse, cidada, mini-scorpions ? ugh, that’s a bit out of my league !
August 15th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Ferds why dont you make a compilation of your travels and publish a book?
August 16th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Maybe you can have a tast on the Hot pot.it’s so spicy that you can’t forget it
August 17th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
BW! Love those dumplings as well. I didn’t have the guts to tr those exotic delicacies as well.
Thanks Photocache! I actually thought of that and a coffeetable book would be my next project. I still feel I don’t have enough materials yet.
Chzhaoy! Thanks! I love the hotpot! It’s the first official Chinese dish I tasted when I went to Chongqing!