The Front Line

Chengdu is best known for being the home of the pandas. It’s also known as being home to some of the spiciest food in China. Wanting to sample the local cuisine I arrived at a hot-pot restaurant.
As soon as I walked through the door everyone looked at me – they’re not used to seeing foreigners in these local restaurants. I take my seat and try to make sense of the Mandarin menu. I’ve read a lot about Sichuan hot-pot so I have some idea of what to order. A spicy broth for the table and a selection of dumplings, meat and vegetables to cook in it, some fresh noodles to mop it up at the end and the obligatory bottle of Tsing Tao to wash it all down.
I am still attracting curious glances as the waiter brings over the pot of broth, sets it on the burner in the middle of the table and cranks up the heat. Within a few minutes steam is rising up off the broth and I can smell the chilli. With my untrained chopstick fingers I clumsily pick up a dumpling to place in the hot-pot. But then I freeze.
Something has slowly risen to the surface of the broth and is bobbing about amongst the chilli. A whole wrinkly chicken foot complete with claws. Everyone is still looking at me. Now this is a dilemma. Do I ignore it and carry on so as not to embarrass myself or do I remove the foot before cooking my meal? Much to the amusement of the rest of the restaurant, I plump for option A. I poke around with my chopsticks in the broth with as much grace as a penguin on stilts trying to remove the offending appendage. Finally a waiter jumps in and removes the claw for me. Everyone else is chuckling at me. Now it’s time to start cooking.
My selected method is to put one morsel at a time into the pot and let it cook. It is all a bit fondue. This method doesn’t work. I chuck the whole lot in. Now we’re cooking.
It’s the moment the whole restaurant has been waiting for. It is time for the first bite. I select a dumpling and place it in my mouth. Delicious. Spicy, meaty and piping hot.. and.. my mouth is burning.. on fire and burning.. the restaurant holds its breath. I empty half a bottle of Tsing Tao into my mouth and smile triumphantly.
Hot Pot is amazing, it is almost mouth blisteringly hot, but it’s delicious – in fact the unbearable heat is all part of the fun. It takes a good few more bottles of beer to get through my meal but by the end my asbestos tongue has earnt me the respect of the locals.

As I pay the bill, my mouth blistering, I can only think – ‘See you tomorrow evening!’