Sichuan Food Crawl: The Best Mapo Tofu, Chili Wontons, and Noodles

In Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, hole-in-the-wall eateries are called fly restaurants because they have customers coming back like, well, flies. They’re often hidden and have questionable hygiene, but they offer some of the best home-cooked street food.
Writer and chef Jenny Gao takes us on a food crawl of Chengdu to show us the city’s best fly restaurants.
0:00 Welcome to Chengdu
0:49 Meet Jenny Gao
1:00 What is a fly restaurant?
2:38 Sweet water noodles
3:43 Chilli wontons
4:43 The birthplace of mapo tofu
If you liked this video, we have more stories about Chinese street food, including:
5 Street Food Items You Must Eat in Guangzhou
• 5 Street Food Items Yo...
5 Street Food Items You Must Try in Shanghai
• 5 Street Food Dishes Y...
Follow us on Instagram for behind-the-scenes moments: / goldthread2
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Have story ideas? Send them to us at hello@goldthread2.com
Script: Tiffany Ip
Narration: Hanley Chu
Editor: Nicholas Ko
Mastering: Joel Roche
#chinesefood #streetfood #sichuan
Music: Audio Network

Пікірлер: 83

  • @yufengxu3950
    @yufengxu39503 жыл бұрын

    As an Asian American with chengdu parents . I can attest that Jenny has not only nailed English perfectly but also the chengdu dialect as well. The “chung yang guan main” gave me chills after she said it. Mad props

  • @omnomnom5359

    @omnomnom5359

    3 жыл бұрын

    saem here, my mother is from yunan and the moment she said that instantly reminded me on Kunming

  • @andyzhang7890
    @andyzhang78903 жыл бұрын

    As a Cantonese guy, I’ve gotten really curious about chengdu lately as I heard it’s a super hotspot of culture, from amazing street food, to the bustling music scene, the laid back attitude, a growing animation industry, etc. This video made my mouth water so much.

  • @KennyLamTravel

    @KennyLamTravel

    3 жыл бұрын

    Same here!

  • @bparrish517
    @bparrish5173 жыл бұрын

    This is Goldthread at its best finding knowledgeable, local guides who can unveil an aspect of China and take us deep into that culture. Jenny shines. Thanks to all the team, again!

  • @gumballdarwin2330

    @gumballdarwin2330

    3 жыл бұрын

    And food also

  • @ratedvfood
    @ratedvfood3 жыл бұрын

    loving all these videos!! I"m all about this vibe!

  • @mistseeker388
    @mistseeker3883 жыл бұрын

    an ancient video from the bygone epoch when people could merrily enjoy restaurants and crowded places. it brings tears to my eyes.

  • @TTGamingTrinh
    @TTGamingTrinh2 жыл бұрын

    Wow food ranger has been through all of these restaurants. Bring back memories of his old videos!

  • @maggiejetson7904
    @maggiejetson79043 жыл бұрын

    Man those places are the real holes in the wall, they must be authentic and good.

  • @waiacheung1453
    @waiacheung14533 жыл бұрын

    I really like all the seasons and I learn a lot. I want to see more of vegetarian/vegan China cousins.

  • @evilfurbee1
    @evilfurbee1 Жыл бұрын

    ma po dao fu is everything to me

  • @billyyoung3726
    @billyyoung37262 жыл бұрын

    great episode !

  • @keepcalmlovedinosaurs8934
    @keepcalmlovedinosaurs89343 жыл бұрын

    Sichuan cuisine is something to experiment with during lock down!

  • @julzzbott
    @julzzbott3 жыл бұрын

    missing Chengdu food😭 I love any chance to see the variety of sichuan food highlighted. so hungry now

  • @kharish
    @kharish3 жыл бұрын

    Wow.....the narrator's english skills had blown me away. As always great fan of cultures and food.

  • @pncvsx9888
    @pncvsx98885 ай бұрын

    I looove the video its like a movie nice work

  • @kevinkuok9131
    @kevinkuok9131 Жыл бұрын

    The Ma Po Tofu on rice looks salivatingly good!

  • @dracokaiser
    @dracokaiser3 жыл бұрын

    It’s interesting cause some of the foods she introduced is similar to certain Tibetan Korean and Vietnamese dishes

  • @aBc-123-XyZ
    @aBc-123-XyZ3 жыл бұрын

    Have a great weekend........😎🙏✌️

  • @Mikejguevarra
    @Mikejguevarra3 жыл бұрын

    Mapo tofu over rice is sooo good

  • @evanh9301
    @evanh93013 жыл бұрын

    i need to go there!

  • @kylin3197
    @kylin31973 жыл бұрын

    Excellent vid (like always)! Despite my mom being from Chongqing I hadn't heard of many of these dishes! Interesting that there's so many misnomers for Sichuan dish names haha e.g. 甜水麵 "sweet water fish" not being sweet or wet, 水煮魚 "water-cooked fish" being way more than just water-cooked fish One vid suggestion tho is, please provide the Chinese characters for things! e.g. I want to know what the Chinese is for "fly restaurant", "fish-fragrant pork and pickled string bean noodles"!

  • @lorilu2496

    @lorilu2496

    3 жыл бұрын

    fly restaurant is literally just 苍蝇馆子

  • @tianwang
    @tianwang Жыл бұрын

    “Fish fragrant” is not really to imitate the taste of fish itself, but to use the seasoning/sauce that is typically used to cook a fish, thus invoking the thoughts of eating a fish.

  • @cpa314
    @cpa3142 жыл бұрын

    dope video.... but I can't get over how the narrator keeps saying "See-chuan" lol

  • @nlitenme
    @nlitenme3 жыл бұрын

    I’m so hungry 🤤

  • @rundong4231
    @rundong42313 жыл бұрын

    4:00 it's like the name of a dish in a Micheline restaurants lmao XD

  • @weiwu3108
    @weiwu31083 жыл бұрын

    Your host is the first person I've seen who speaks both English and Chengdu dialect natively, and i find it really hot :)

  • @relaxationsoundsfx
    @relaxationsoundsfx3 жыл бұрын

    I love MSG so Muchhh

  • @melaniescarlet01
    @melaniescarlet013 жыл бұрын

    Please do this for other places! 😃

  • @subwooferCBR88
    @subwooferCBR887 ай бұрын

    i treated the jelly herb like caprison that's the bomb

  • @joyjoyoo
    @joyjoyoo3 жыл бұрын

    甜烧白有意思 Aww, kitty.

  • @NorthS1deSold1er
    @NorthS1deSold1er3 жыл бұрын

    Anyone looking to make some of these recipes, I would recommend checking out "Chinese Cooking Demystified" on KZread.

  • @sudiptodas0001
    @sudiptodas00013 жыл бұрын

    Why does this guy sound like " *Burger King Foot Lettuce* "

  • @pyromaniac12345
    @pyromaniac123453 жыл бұрын

    I was in Shenzhen once with family, and I saw someone preparing food, sweat was dripping in to the food and someone said "It just makes the food more salty"

  • @meatmaster069
    @meatmaster0693 жыл бұрын

    I fell asleep and this is what I ended at

  • @misubi
    @misubi3 жыл бұрын

    The male narrator sounds Chinese but his pronunciation is really off with the Chinese words.

  • @user-wt2yy8nx7s
    @user-wt2yy8nx7s3 жыл бұрын

    👍👍👍

  • @shaduck06
    @shaduck062 жыл бұрын

    i thought Kung Pao Chicken was the most Sichuan dish in the West. Where is a great place to eat it in HK?

  • @huangfroid
    @huangfroid3 жыл бұрын

    Can someone tell me what animal that is at 0:04?

  • @crunchasianslaw

    @crunchasianslaw

    3 жыл бұрын

    most likely rabbit head

  • @huangfroid

    @huangfroid

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@crunchasianslaw I immediately googled rabbit head when I saw your response and I'm sure you're right.

  • @user-fg7qc5qv4s
    @user-fg7qc5qv4s3 жыл бұрын

    it maybe called chili chaoshou instead of wonton .

  • @piruchiruchi
    @piruchiruchi3 жыл бұрын

    Why this sounds like Angbata's voice

  • @eggos1019
    @eggos10192 жыл бұрын

    Damn they got a budget voice-over

  • @xz1891
    @xz18913 жыл бұрын

    赞一个,成都妹

  • @duncanmit5307
    @duncanmit53073 жыл бұрын

    💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜👍👍👍👍👍

  • @dw1757
    @dw17573 жыл бұрын

    Hey you got to describe the tastes and textures of the food!

  • @happyluckygolden
    @happyluckygolden3 жыл бұрын

    That's a weird description of mapo tofu, though

  • @scabbage

    @scabbage

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yet accurate.

  • @happyluckygolden

    @happyluckygolden

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@scabbage nope

  • @scabbage

    @scabbage

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@happyluckygolden wut do u know?

  • @David_T
    @David_T3 жыл бұрын

    "There is more to Sichuan than just red hot chilies". Yes, there are also Sichuan peppercorns, which numb your tongue so you can EAT MORE CHILIES BTW, I would recommend "Land of Plenty" by Fuchsia Dunlop

  • @tommybriggs4405
    @tommybriggs44053 жыл бұрын

    Yo what’s her @

  • @seashellfang17
    @seashellfang172 жыл бұрын

    The narrator has the Valorant voice

  • @yellowrooster3308
    @yellowrooster33083 жыл бұрын

    She’s very cute

  • @haruzanfuucha
    @haruzanfuucha3 жыл бұрын

    What the hell is with his pronunciation of "Sichuan"?

  • @---iv5gj
    @---iv5gj2 жыл бұрын

    say "seeee tswan" one more time, i dare you, i double dare you!😡

  • @Goldthread

    @Goldthread

    2 жыл бұрын

    😳

  • @tevezkeleztheman
    @tevezkeleztheman3 жыл бұрын

    Not condescending, even it sounds like it: The creator of Goldthread, born in US sounds way more Chinese than Jenny Gao who was born in Chengdu. I think she's been in US for quite awhile, and she's a writer after all.

  • @georgewbushcenterforintell147
    @georgewbushcenterforintell1473 жыл бұрын

    I learned how to make mapo from Taiwanese people .

  • @laevan923
    @laevan9233 жыл бұрын

    sichuaner

  • @Mikekhoh
    @Mikekhoh3 жыл бұрын

    Hmm..........questionable hygiene 😁

  • @Koenigg99
    @Koenigg993 жыл бұрын

    Incorrect! Fish Fragrant dishes aka 鱼香 are not meant to imitate the flavor of fish! The name is 鱼香 or fish fragrant because that flavor profile (consisting of garlic, pickled chilies, soy sauce, black vinegar, and sugar) was originally used to cook fish dishes with. However, one day someone decided to use that sauce to cook a meat dish, and it ended being called 鱼香肉细 (fish fragrant meat strips), and eventually lead to 鱼香茄子 (fish fragrant eggplant). Please fact check before you make these misleading statements!

  • @strictlynein4626
    @strictlynein46263 жыл бұрын

    Imagine taking a poo after the making of this video. 

  • @blvk3
    @blvk33 жыл бұрын

    how sad she shouldnt admit that she has been living in American she just said, moving about

  • @Yogirliej4dee
    @Yogirliej4dee3 жыл бұрын

    The food looks good, but it’s no wonder the obesity is going up in China. Not the type of food to eat on a diet.

  • @c-LAW
    @c-LAW3 жыл бұрын

    I love the street food in outer edges of Chongqing, but even countryside too! Countryside is even better. Imagine how wonderful Sichuan would be if the CCP didn't exist!

  • @hermanchow1405

    @hermanchow1405

    3 жыл бұрын

    Party pooper !

  • @c-LAW

    @c-LAW

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@hermanchow1405 Sichuan has great parties, even Chengdu. Food is Chengdu has changed a lot over the past few decades, in part due to Chinese Muslims fleeing from persecution who have moved in and setup street food.

  • @freakmoister

    @freakmoister

    3 жыл бұрын

    Lol idiots everywhere

  • @teasea546

    @teasea546

    3 жыл бұрын

    What you're saying is very stereotypical to those white foreigners that proclaim to love the "real China" of the countrysides and decry the "loss of Chinese traditions" as a way to diss the "see see pee" as a way to virtue signal. You're basically telling Asians to stay "Oriental", don't develop and modernize, don't dare to compete and rise like the Anglo Caucasians have and just stay as your exotic travel spot. It's very condescending and discounts the majority of Chinese people that now live in cities, which is the global trend by the way. Wherever people go, their culture follows, both in the countrysides and in the cities. The last part of the video talks about exactly this.

  • @c-LAW

    @c-LAW

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@teasea546 And you would know, telling me what to do. Freaking hypocrite. I'm sure you're proud of the your 1200 word smug essay, dripping with self-righteousness. I probably lived in China longer than you've been alive. Thank you Karen.

  • @FDSeoul
    @FDSeoul2 жыл бұрын

    This channel suck to watch when one is dying or craving of something savory and delicious

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