And the taxi drivers in Chongqing are like a stand-up cody show.
"You're driving so slow, it's like you're driving a wedding car! You might as well just get out and walk."
"Even my husky at ho runs faster than you."
"Wow, there's so much space beside you and you still squeeze in with . You're really sothing."
"Damn!"
The last two words weren't from the driver, they were from Wang Fan.
"Driver, did you just take off?!"
He clearly felt his butt lift off the seat and heard a "bang" sound!
The driver calmly said, "How could it be? My 1.6 liter naturally aspirated engine, plus it's a gas-powered car, how could it possibly fly?"
Wang Fan looked at Zhuo Qianqian, and Zhuo Qianqian nodded vigorously, indicating she felt it too.
Wang Fan quickly said, "Driver, let's slow down a bit, we aren't in that much of a hurry..."
Due to the traffic jam earlier, Wang Fan saw on the GPS that it showed over 100 minutes from the airport to the air raid shelter hotpot, but when the driver stopped steadily, only 50 minutes had passed.
Thinking about the driver maneuvering through the parking garage and even driving down steps, he felt that ti was very reasonable.
But he felt the speedoter on the driver's dashboard wasn't showing speed, but rather his own life points—the higher the number, the faster he felt he was losing his life, truly exciting.
The taxi fare was 55 yuan, but it felt like he was flying low in an airplane. Wang Fan thought it was really worth it, if he didn't count the near-death experience, but now he needed to eat sothing to calm down.
"Wow, Chongqing is so hot."
As soon as Zhuo Qianqian got out of the car, she exclaid.
The air conditioning at the airport and in the taxi kept them from feeling it, but getting out of the car, they were imdiately t with a wave of scorching heat.
It wasn't the hotpot steam, it was the naturally high temperature of Chongqing.
In other cities, it's hard to reach just over 30 degrees now, but in Chongqing, it stays at a blazing 38 degrees, occasionally breaking past 40 degrees.
Wang Fan stamped his feet to calm his soul, pulling Zhuo Qianqian toward the hotpot restaurant.
They were greeted by a sign reading "The Second Largest Cave Hotpot in the Universe."
As they walked in, Wang Fan was taken aback; he hadn't expected this air raid shelter hotpot to actually be inside an air raid shelter.
The long tunnel, though renovated with many modern elents, still retained faint traces of its ancient appearance. A display screen read "The full length is two kiloters, equivalent to the size of six football fields."
"It's really an air raid shelter, and it's so long."
As Zhuo Qianqian slled the aroma of spices wafting from the air raid shelter, her stomach started grumbling uncontrollably, and Wang Fan hurriedly pulled her inside.
Though it was already nearly 10 PM, the air raid shelter was still bustling with people eating hotpot, groups of three or five gathered at a table, chatting and laughing, making it very cozy.
This place operates until 2 AM, so they didn't have to worry about catching the hotpot shop's closing ti. If they had arrived just as it was closing, he would rather not eat.
At that ti, both the waitstaff and chefs would be grumpy, and the unsuspecting might end up with unexpected, undetectable surprises.
They found an empty table and sat down, and shortly after, a server ca over for their order.
Wang Fan ordered a yuan-yuan pot, one side with mildly spicy beef oil broth and the other with mushroom soup. His first ti in Chongqing, he wasn't going to recklessly challenge Chongqing's spiciness.
Besides beef and lamb, Wang Fan also ordered beef tripe, spicy beef, duck blood, paw chicken feet, shrimp paste, ox tripe, duck intestines, potato noodles, tribute vegetables, duck blood, and crispy pork. Wang Fan's eating capacity wasn't very strong, but he couldn't resist Qianqian's. Even this might not be enough.
The serving speed here was very fast; shortly after ordering, they brought the broth base, a very large iron pot with a divider in the middle. The mushroom soup was decent, while the beef oil hotpot base was piled high like a small mountain.
As the temperature in the pot increased, the beef oil base began to lt, soon emitting a rich aroma mixed with spices.
A server pushed a cart over and began serving dishes, quickly filling up the table.
Wang Fan fanned the air above the pot with his hand, slling the aroma and starting to analyze the spices in it, monts later understanding it well.
Zhuo Qianqian was nearly starving, using long chopsticks to pick up so beef tripe and placing it in the beef oil pot.
Wang Fan began preparing the dipping sauce, and by the ti Qianqian had done the seven up, eight down thod, his sauce was ready.
Unlike the preference for sesa paste in Beijing's lamb hotpot, Chongqing hotpot uses an oil dish, with fragrant oil mixed with various side dishes and seasonings.
The soul of the oil dish is minced garlic; everything else can be omitted, but garlic is a must. Adding a bit of chili pepper makes a perfect dipping sauce.
The beef tripe, after being dipped in the oil dish, was blown a bit before being handed to Wang Fan's mouth. Wang Fan opened his mouth and ate it, making Qianqian's face light up before she started cooking for herself.
As soon as the beef tripe hit his mouth, Wang Fan felt that choosing the mildly spicy option was a very wise decision.
The blazing spiciness started burning his lips right from the first bite—a level of spiciness that's at least extra hot in Beijing.
But putting aside the intense spiciness, it's no wonder Chongqing hotpot is renowned throughout Huaxia.
The room temperature fragrant oil nicely reduced so of the beef tripe's heat, so it wasn't too hot to eat. The beef tripe was thick yet maintained a crisp and tender texture. Flavored with the beef oil base, it had a unique beef aroma mingling with the tripe's natural refreshing taste and the aromatic plant oils, described in Chongqing dialect as "very satisfying."
Wang Fan picked up a stewed chicken paw, a specialty dish recomnded by the server, cooked till it's so soft it lts in the mouth, with a mouthful of collagen when sucked, and the flavors are savory, fragrant, and mildly spicy. For a hotpot restaurant, this level is already top-notch.
The crispy pork surprised Wang Fan sowhat; it's a staple dish in Sichuan and Chongqing restaurants, whether they serve stir-fry or hotpot.
The golden outer crust was crispy and crunchy, with crushed Sichuan peppercorns and chili adding a numbing spicy flavor. Inside, the at sticks were well cooked, soft, juicy, and very flavorful.
After tasting a few dishes, Wang Fan started cooking at, he didn't eat much himself, mainly keeping the little foodie who had been hungry all afternoon supplied.
Most ingredients he chose didn't take long to cook. Cooking them for too long greatly impacted their texture, and his cooked dishes naturally tasted much better than those Qianqian cooked herself.
For Wang Fan's feeding, Qianqian certainly welcod it without resistance, saving her the hassle of cooking and tasting better than her own, bringing these ingredients to their peak flavor.
The only downside was the quantity wasn't quite satisfying—a big plate of duck intestines looked plenty but after cooking turned out to be just a thin layer. And these shrink after cooking, so one plate was just a few bites.
But despite this flaw, the duck intestines were also crispy and tender in texture, with the ingredients here at least very fresh.
The duck blood here was similar to the one Wang Fan had previously made himself: cut into large, vividly red pieces, and after being boiled, they still had that bouncy "duang duang" texture, though lacking so richness due to no milk added during its making.
This duck blood's shelf life is only a day, basically never kept overnight, making it a very decent hotpot ingredient.
This weekend, Wang Fan planned to take Zhuo Qianqian around Chongqing, focusing on eating rather than playing. They could skip attractions but couldn't skip als. Many fans requested him to summarize a food guide whenever he reached a city so they could dodge pitfalls and eat the best when they visited. He intended to start this task in Chongqing.
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