At the unknown restaurant

I have no idea what the name of this restaurant was. It was in an area full of factories, which we were told had once been farmland. When the land was taken from the farmers, to make sure the farmers had some income (and keep them from protesting), the farmers had been given apartment buildings near the area. Factory workers rented the apartments, and the ground floor of the buildings were rented to restaurants which the workers streamed into during lunch brake.

We walked past this to get to the restaurant:



The place had the feel of the Old West about it.

This shot, this shot, and this shot were all taken in the same area.

It would be called a slum in America, but I loved something about it. The food I had there was the best I had in China, and it would compete well with a Vietnamese restaurant in the US.

We were told it served Sichuan-style food. Things tended to be spicy and flavorful, with smokey flavors in many of the dishes. They seemed good at cooking fatty-parts of pork and vegetables. Some of the food tasted very familiar, sometimes in odd ways. I had greens there that tasted exactly like Campbell's chicken noodle soup.



Clockwise from the bowl of rice are: a fish and tomato soup, chicken (tasted exactly like Buffalo wings), cucumbers in chili sauce, and greens.



This is the best dish I had in China, bacon. It came to the table still cooking with a flame underneath it. It was smokey-tasting and peppery. Everyone picked through the vegetables to get to the bacon.