- So check it out, it's Trevor James.
I am with the one and only Kevin Cook,
from Shanghai.
We are filming his traveling for $20 a day series.
You got the money?
- I got it right here.
- Yeah, so Kevin's goal is to travel the whole world
on $20 a day.
How much have you spent this morning?
I've already spent, what is this, 19 so far today.
Or, no I've spent 29 so far today, sorry.
My math is terrible.
- So, we have 101 Renminbi for the whole day.
We're at a local market, we're gonna have a lot of fun.
A true Sichuan experience for less than $20 now.
Let's go check it out bud.
- Alright man, let's do it.
- Alright
Meeting up with Kevin Cook to film his $20 per day travel
series was an absolute blast.
The first place we went was of course an awesome
morning market where we sampled some amazing snacks,
and had a true, authentic Schezwan experience.
This is Sichuan Yung Baan Thai, so it's all spicy,
in chili oil, vegetables.
And then you can get a fresh wrap here.
Aww yeah.
- Oh like Jianbing?
- Well, they kind of make it like Jianbing
but they don't, it's more of a wrap.
(Trevor speaking Mandarin Chinese)
So she takes this bogodart
(Trevor speaking Mandarin Chinese)
Pickled radish
And then she takes this spicy one
(Trevor speaking Mandarin Chinese)
okay
Wraps it up, she gives me two of these handmade, fluffy,
beautiful wraps she makes fresh.
- Mmmm
It has like a crunch to it.
- Yeah, there is a definite crunch.
It's sour.
- Sour and spicy for sure.
- And--
(speaking Mandarin Chinese)
So this is actually a little sweet too.
Do you get that little bit of sweetness?
- Yeah - From this radish.
- Yeah man for sure
- A little, right.
- Super spicy, salty, mmm good.
Really good way to start the day here.
Getting our vegetables in early.
- Yup
We just got the first round done with Kevin Cook here.
We're gonna go explore the market a little more.
I'm gonna get Kevin to try a Hua Jiao, Sichuan specialty.
And then we're gonna go for lunch a bit later.
This is good stuff buddy.
One thing you've gotta try in Sichuan is Hua Jiao.
And I'm gonna buy some here and you can try one out.
Get your mouth really numb.
Right here.
- [Kevin] I'm gonna try some of this
super spicy peppercorn right here.
- [Trevor] Yeah
- Let's see if we can totally numb our mouths.
- Hua Jiao, this is what's in all of the hot pot,
a lot of the chow, a lot of the stir fried dishes
here in Sichuan.
Let's try one together, okay?
- I don't know man, I'm dreading this.
- So you don't eat it, just bite into it and
get it on your tongue and feel that.
Oh yeah.
- It's not super spicy, it just turns your tongue.
It completely numbs your tongue.
It's like this tingling, like snapping,
popping feeling.
- It's very bitter as well.
- Yeah
- Bitter and your tongue is watering.
Oh dude is your tongue watering?
- Yeah, my mouth is watering but it's gotta a really
floral taste.
- Yup, very floral.
- Like a spicy flower kind of a thing.
- Yeah, exactly, a numbing flower.
It's like you are at the dentist and the...
(speaking Mandarin Chinese)
and there is like a battery on your tongue.
- Yeah, dude, it's exactly like touching
a battery to your tongue.
- Yeah
- That's exactly right.
- That was cheap.
So, we just got a taxi, a didi, which is like China's Uber,
for how many K was that?
That was about...
- I think it was 8 K.
- 8 k for 6.5 Yuan,
so that's not breaking the budget.
- No, at 6.5 Yuan too, split between 4 people, it's about
- It's about one something
- One something, you know what, let's just call it,
you know, let's round it up.
- Two - Let's round it up to two.
- Yeah it's cheap.
And now we're at a classic Sichuan noodle joint.
This is the place that made me fall in love with
Sichuan food when I here a few years ago,
and I wanna bring you here to try the best flavors.
- Awesome.
- So this is classic Sichuan food here.
We have a great selection of noodles and wontons here.
This is a Dandan noodles.
This is classic, this is the most famous noodles
from Sichuan.
It's dry so the chili oil is on the bottom.
It's covered in ground pork and Ya Cai
which is like, preserved mustard greens.
Over here is a hong you chao shou
also dry on the bottom, take a look buddy.
It's covered in the silky chili oil.
And the magic is just so
- [Kevin] Mix these around in there
- It's so good.
A little sweet.
There's actually, this is the reason why I moved here.
This one bowl of hong you chao shou.
- This is it, right here.
- Yup, this is it.
I was in Chengdu about two years ago.
I hadn't moved here yet, and I just
stumbled upon this place.
This one little joint.
I ordered the hong you chao shou and I tried it
and I thought, I'm gonna move here.
- Dang
- I'm gonna move here and now I am here.
Two years later, still enjoying these
hong you chao shou.
- The reason Trevor moved to Chengdu, this it right here.
- This is it. - I'm about to take
a bite out of it.
- Mmmm
- Dude
- What do you think?
- Oh, I've honestly never tried a sauce like this.
I was expecting it to taste a little more familiar.
Like that Hua Jiao, that I am used to getting
in Shangai.
- Everytime you eat it, it's so good.
- Dude, it's savory.
- It's a little sweet right?
A little sweet and savory.
- What's this right here?
- This is liang fen, which is like a rice starch
covered in a vinegar and a chili oil,
fresh ground chilies, garlic.
And then over here this a guang liang fen,
which is a mung bean jelly
covered in the same sort of stuff.
- [Kevin] Awesome
- [Trevor] Yeah, and after those insanely delicious
noodles and wontons, I had to bring Kevin for another
authentic snack only found in Sichuan, rabbit head.
Rabbit head.
- Rabbit head!
We've got our gloves here that they gave us for
eating these heads.
- Soggy, soggy with oil.
Look at that.
- Oh man.
- I think I need another glove here.
The secret is, you gotta break it.
You gotta break it.
You gotta, oh I just ripped the beak off.
That's not what's supposed to happen.
Oh there, there, there.
- [Kevin] Oh man you can see it's teeth and it's tongue.
Should I take the tongue first?
Is that a pretty good place?
- [Trevor] I like the cheek, that is the most tender.
- [Kevin] The cheek?
- See right here?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- That's the cheek.
- Okay, yeah, I got the cheek.
- There's a little meat there, see?
You just go in for it.
- Alright man, I'll try it.
Oh yeah, that's good.
- That's good right?
- Yeah.
- To me, the spice is just overwhelming.
- That's why I went with the five spice.
- Yeah, there's the brain in there.
You got it all.
- That cheek I think is like
- Is the most tender, right?
And after a little break I took Kevin to a
cheap hole in the wall for dinner and ordered
up some Sichuan classics for dirt cheap.
So I was thinking of taking you to a hot pot
or a classic Sichuan stir fry place.
But now that is out of the budget so we've got
hole in the wall.
And this is cheap and delicious.
- Okay I can handle cheap and delicious
hole in the wall man, let's check it out.
- So let's have a seat outside right here.
- This a gan or something?
- Gan banda
(speaking Mandarin Chinese)
- Okay so we got five dishes here.
Stir fried pork in this spicy, salty
dou ban jiang.
Kung pao chicken here, kung pao ji ding.
Oh man, my mouth is watering.
- Mine too man, mine too.
- Mapo doufu and then some Chinese water spinach
and some tu dou si, kinda like.
- [Kevin] Dried tu dou si
- [Trevor] Dried tu dou si
- I've never seen that before.
- Yeah
- I actually want to go for this first.
- Okay
- It's french fries basically, very thin cut.
- Very thin cut, yeah.
Kung pao ji ding is good.
- Oh yeah.
- Cheap and delicious right.
- Totally.
Yeah, we'll definitely have enough money
to get a massage and get home after this I think.
- Yeah, yup, maybe you've got 10 kuai left over too.
- 46 kuai for our dinner this evening split
between four people, 11.5 per person?
- Yeah
- I'll throw down 12.
- I hear you.
- Yeah, I'm feeling like a big spender.
- Wow, 12!
This is a 30 yuen massage.
Half an hour foot massage so after that you've got
6 yuen to get home and whatever else you want to splurge on.
- Yeah, should be enough.
- Let's take a look.
- Yeah man.
(funky music)
- That was an awesome day here with Kevin Cook
from Monkey Abroad.
He's got an awesome $20 traveling series coming up.
He's gonna go all throughout Asia for the next six months.
So subscribe to his channel.
I'll probably put a little box up here somewhere.
It was a good time buddy.
- Yeah thanks a lot.
- I hope you had a good time here in Sichuan,
a true authentic experience.
Tried some good food.
- Yeah man, it was a great day today, thank you.
- Awesome, let's head out.
- Let's hit it.
- Yeah good buddy.