- [Trevor] Coming up for all of you food rangers,
we're having some extremely delicious,
homemade, and spicy street food in Sichuan, China,
along the ancient Tea Horse Road.
We're continuing our journey South,
as we make our way to Zigong,
home of some of the spiciest food in Sichuan.
And first up, a classic Chinese street breakfast
before we begin our journey.
If you stick around until the end,
you can join us in the back of a Sichuan kitchen
as we sample one of the spiciest dishes in the world.
Alright, so check it out, it's Trevor James.
We are deep in Sichuan and today,
we are traveling to the spiciest town of Sichuan
and we're gonna have a bunch of street food.
Starting right out, we're going for breakfast.
Bright and early.
(bright, fun jazz music)
Whoa, look at this, guys, this is the morning baozi.
So these are Sichuan style xiaolongbao baozi.
Oh, so there's a bit of pork,
a bit of onion, and a bit of ginger.
Oh, we're gonna have to get some of those too.
So it's pretty cool to come to
a morning baozi, jiaozi store.
Here these are all over Sichuan.
They got baozi, steamed buns stuffed with
pork, ginger, and onion.
They got jiaozi, dumplings.
There is youtiao, fried dough crackers.
And they're making it all in the back.
There's boiled eggs, there's porridge, it's all here.
We're gonna sit down and have a bite.
So this is really cool,
just to come here and have a morning--
Yeah, that's what it's all about. (chuckles)
Come in to get the morning street food bright and early.
We have baozi stuffed with pork, onion, and ginger.
And then we have jiaozi, as well, dumplings.
These jiaozi look quite average,
but the baozi here look nice and plump.
They call these xiaolongbao as well.
Very different from Shanghai style xiaolongbao but,
that looks great.
Alright! (chuckles)
Look at that, guys.
Just soak that baozi in that chili dip.
Looks amazing.
Mmmm, oh!
Wha!
That's delicious!
It's actually slightly oily, but the filling, oh wow!
There's nothing like sinking your teeth
into a soft baozi bun,
and then that filling kind of explodes.
You can taste a bit of the onion flavor.
I think there's a slight ginger flavor, as well, in there.
That is a plump, soft baozi!
Bye-bye! - Bye-bye!
- Great, great food, great start to the day.
We're gonna keep exploring.
We're going to take the bus today.
We're going to Zigong, which is Sichuan's spiciest city.
Let's go check it out.
We had the best time ever in Neijiang
and now we're making our way to Zigong.
We chose a bunch of cities in Sichuan,
and we're slowly making our way South.
We're gonna go to Yunnan.
It's going to be the best trip in the world.
And now we're on the highway, awesome.
After a beautiful bus ride, we made our way to Zigong city.
Hungry for street food, I found a street land
with classic Sichuan style xiaochao joints.
These are found all over China, and in Sichuan,
you get an amazing selection of
fresh meat and vegetables ready to stir-fry
using classic Sichuan spices like
fermented broad bean paste and pickled chilies.
This is home-cooked delight.
We're gonna look for some chaotai,
you can just point at the veg you wanna fry up.
We're gonna taste it out.
Awesome, so I just told her I'm gonna order
what she's good at and it's gonna be good.
So Chef Chen here is cooking up some lotus root slices with
pork, pickled chilis, braodbean paste.
Oh, it's garlicky and it's smelling so good right here.
So Chef Chen here just added some bell peppers.
Oh, that smells awesome.
This is so cool to come along the side of the street.
You can just order up any dishes you want, fry 'em up.
And Chef Chen here is cooking up a storm.
Yeah, we got here a bit late 'cause the bus came in.
But this is awesome.
Awesome, guys!
So we just got the home-cooked Sichuan dishes here.
I love how you can just point at what you want
and choose the flavors that you want.
So we have lotus root with pork.
It has doubanjiang, broad bean paste, and pickled chilies.
And that combo is the ultimate, essential flavor of Sichuan.
And then over here, just look at that, it's steaming!
She added some Sichuan peppercorns in this one as well.
Nice!
This one has the same essential mixture of
broad bean paste and pickled chilies.
Pork and garlic bolts.
Oh, it just looks so flavorful, awesome!
First thing I wanna try, is this.
I just love lotus root and sliced pork.
Looks amazing.
Mmm, mmm!
Wha!
Mmmm, that is incredible!
Home-cooked Sichuan food, right on the street.
The lotus root is so nice and crunchy.
There is that pickled sourness from the pickled chilies.
Spicy and aromatic from that broad bean paste.
And the pork just melts in your mouth.
To finish off the lunch, and before we made our way
to an ancient village outside of the city
and ate one of the spiciest meals in the world,
we asked a couple locals where we can get
a specialty dry style blade sheared noodles
and found out there was a famous one right up the street.
So I just asked these guys
where we could get some blade sheared...
And we're gonna go...
Okay, bye-bye!
- Give me five!
- Okay! - [All] Bye-bye!
- Alright, sweet!
Chef Chen was so friendly.
And coming to these little places,
it's really heart-warming because
the people there are so friendly.
You can have delicious food.
The cuisine is a world of its own,
and it's a lot of fun.
We're gonna go for a walk, and get some more food.
Awesome!
This looks amazing, guys.
Ganban, so dry style blade sheared noodles.
I've never tried anything like this before.
That looks beautiful!
So all these blade sheared noodles,
there's bok choy, cilantro, this is hongshao beef,
red-braised beef, and then on the bottom,
let's see the bottom.
Yancai, salted veg, lots of chili paste.
Lots of greens and cilantro, and it's dry style.
Red-braised beef, as well, in there.
You've gotta mix it up and eventually it becomes covered.
Nice, that looks refreshing and spicy at the same time!
(slurping noodles) Mmm!
Oh!
Oh, that's great!
That is really nice, the blade sheared noodles are chewy.
Nice and chewy.
There's a freshness from the cilantro.
The salted veg give it a bit of earthiness.
And the chili paste is fragrant, salty.
Oh, and it's so nice fresh with cilantro.
The chewy noodles, that is truly what it's all about there.
After lunch, we made our way out of Zigong
to an ancient nearby town on the Tea Horse Road.
An important town in salt production,
and found one of the spiciest meals you'll ever eat.
So we just took a cab out and we are now
in an old village outside of Zigong
and there's supposed to be a famous chicken foot joint.
Near here they've got a super spicy chicken feet,
and just look at this ancient village!
This is sweet!
So this sign here means chamagudao,
which is ancient Tea Horse Road,
and that is this whole series.
We're traveling on the Tea Horse Road.
Sichuan down to Yunnan, on the ancient tea routes
that brought tea all the way from the South of Yunnan,
into the Himalayas in Tibet.
Beautiful.
We're gonna walk around and get some food!
The ancient Tea Horse Road.
We're on the Tea Horse Road, lookin' for good food.
After a quick walk through the village,
we found one of the spiciest meals you'll ever eat.
This is mindblowing-ly spicy.
So we're frying up the chicken feet here.
This looks insanely spicy.
Full of fresh chilies, I cannot believe it.
Wow, crazy!
Can't believe it here, guys.
We've got fried chicken feet and
thousands of chilies here!
Thousands of fresh red and green chilies.
Lots of ginger and garlic, lots of Sichuan peppercorn.
Oh, I saw him put in some peppercorn oil in there.
It looks insanely spicy.
This has no dried chilies at all,
it's just all fresh chilies and chicken feet.
You eat the cartilage around the bones.
And in China, people find that very satisfying
and they say it has lots of collagen,
which is good for your skin.
And over here, this is gonna be
another extremely spicy dish.
This is the same thing, except with slices of lamb.
This one looks like it's got a little bit more
Sichuan peppercorn in here.
You can see the peppercorns.
Crazy!
This is called liangxia, which literally translates
as cold shrimp, but it's actually a dessert.
This is made with niangaofen.
See these little fish looking things?
And it's full of peanuts and sesame, and brown sugar.
Oh, and little raisins.
It is a fruity, nutty dessert that cools you right down.
We're just gonna go right in for that chicken foot.
Try that out right away.
Eat the cartilage there.
Mm!
Oh, that is actually,
wha!
Oh, that's spicy and the--
This looks awesome!
I can see the common theme here is just fresh chilies,
thousands of them!
Let's try this fish out.
(coughing) That is spicy!
And minty and peppercorn-y.
Oh, the peppercorns just bring your mouth alive.
Now we're gonna get, (groans)
and now we're going right in for that lamb.
Wow, two bites and I'm on fire.
This is a painful meal, I can tell.
Mm!
Oh wow!
This is so spicy you cannot believe, guys.
I'm gonna put a little spice rating right here.
This is one of the spiciest things
I have ever eaten in my whole life.
Thousand of fresh red and green chilies,
numbing peppercorn sensation,
super gingery, super garlicky, this is intense.
We gotta finish it.
I'm just having a dessert here to cool me down because,
that is so hot.
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I really can't wait to share this
Tea Horse Road series with you.
Thanks so much, guys.