吃货 Discoveries

This food is all from Alessi’s Restaurant in Jiaochangkou District of Chongqing. I love this place, because the quality of the ingredients is impeccable. Sourcing western food imports in Chongqing is really a difficult feat. I give Alex, the owner of Alessi’s a lot of credit for maintaining quality and being uncompromising on his food. You can taste the difference- especially in the olive oils, cheeses, and cured meats. Pictured above is a fresh, herbaceous, thick-cut, ultra smokey bacon, chicken, roasted marinated artichoke, roasted dried tomato, and pine nut salad; this salad is hearty and filling, and would be great as a lunch entree. The pasta is a homemade spinach fettuccini with rabbit and porcini mushroom ragu topped with Parmesan and drizzled with a noteworthy olive oil. Last is an aged-spicy salami pizza with a blend of insanely flavorful and nutty Romano and Parmesan cheeses (I'm sure there are other cheeses in there as well; I just don't want to guess and list the wrong ones).

Michelin graded dim sum restaurant, Din Tai Feng, in Taipei. I ordered a few more dishes, but these were my favorite of the bunch. The vegetable and pork wontons in the house-made sweet and spicy soy sauce were especially delicious. The balance of flavors between the perfectly sweetened sauce and the slightly savory, heavy on the greens, wonton filling produced a delicious bite. Soup dumplings, in Mandarin called xiaolongbao 小笼包, (picture with the toy crab) are one of my favorite Asian foods! The broth inside the dumpling is extremely rich, like an upgraded, condensed chicken soup broth.

Fusion food made in China. Pan seared orange balsamic and brown sugar tofu atop a mixed fruit and veggie salad consisting of diced bell pepper, red onion slices, super sweet plums, pomegranate seeds, and green onion, brought together with an orange balsamic vinaigrette.

Jiaochangkou, Chongqing, China. “Countryside” -style tofu; soft tofu with a generous topping of a non threateningly spicy lajiao pepper and fermented black bean sauce. 

English breakfast tea infused with lemon slices, goji berries, a little bit of honey, and pomegranate elixir.

Steamed eggplant in a garlic, lajiao chili pepper sauce, and drizzled with fragrant Chinese red oil.

Paper thin carrot salad in a toasted turmeric, ground coriander seed and fresh mint yogurt dressing. Topped with sunflower seeds.

Clam linguine in an olive oil and fresh herb sauce. Italian Restaurant on the Fourth Floor of the IFC building in Jiefangbei, Chongqing. 

For nearly all of 2014, every time I would go to Jiaochangkou in Chongqing, I would run into this little 3-year old girl selling flowers with her “grandma” late at night.

Dali, China. This is a small family-run farm located right outside the hotel room where I was staying.

Three-cheese fondue, made from deliciously sharp cheese brought in a suitcase from the French Alps. Salad with lardon, champignon mushrooms, and balsamic vinaigrette. Thank you Vu!

Paulaner Brauhaus inside Chongqing’s Kempinski Hotel. This massive 12-foot long sausage only cost about $50 USD. My three friends and I had a painful time finishing it. The sausage was delicious, but this was a LOT of meat. 

This was one of my proudest creations. It’s homemade white bread with chunks of homemade ricotta cheese rolled into the dough. 

Sometimes western sauces go well on Chinese food. These are beef, tomato, carrot, and ginger dumplings topped with a spicy tomato, cilantro, and garlic cream sauce.

Korean rice cakes, called niangao, boiled, then fried with onions and bell peppers, and lastly stir-fried in a super spicy chili-garlic sauce with soy and rice vinegar. That’s some locally made kimchi at the top of the plate.