I recently spent 10 days in a little town way out in the west of China – in a mountainous region – about 150 kilometers outside of Chengdu. There were no KFC’s or McDonald’s to be found in this remote area – not even fake ones (that should tell you how far out I really was) – so I had to fill up with the local food. One of the main staples of this little town (and throughout the region) is Malatang which is a Chinese word meaning ‘spicy and hot’. Malatang is basically an extreme version of Sichuan’s famous Hot Pot where anything and everything is thrown into a boiling hot cauldron full of spicy juices and then fished out a few minutes later to be eaten with chopsticks. A few days later, the tangy taste continues to inhabit my mouth no matter how many times I brush my teeth.
After living in China (and Mexico) for a few years, I could handle the spiciness but it was the actual content of the big pot that made me a bit uneasy. Have a look.
At first I thought these were pig’s intenstines so you can imagine my ‘great’ relief when I found out that I was actually looking at Pig brain!
Cow stomach is another popular malatang ingredient.
See this big spoonful? Someone is about to dump it into my bowl (good ol’ Chinese hospitality) and soon I will be munching on cow stomach, pig brain, turtle eggs and other delightful pices of who’knows’what.