The cold wave over the weekend can be considered to have cleared the sky in Chengdu, and on Monday we saw the blue sky that we hadn't seen in a long time.
During the weekend, we wanted to take our timid cat, Toffee, out for a walk. I thought he would be scared to go out, but I didn't expect that he wouldn't even take a step outside the park.
In the afternoon, while it was still not dark, we put a leash on Toffee to get him used to going out for a walk. We didn't put him in a carrier because we wanted him to feel comfortable. However, I don't recommend doing this for cats that haven't been outside for a long time, as they may feel unsafe and become stressed easily. Toffee is a cat who knows how to follow us and knows there are benefits to it, even though every time we take him out it's to go to the vet, we always reward him with treats.
We drove to Tianfu Park, which is not far from us. I would like to recommend it to friends who come to Chengdu. Basically, Tianfu Park is a collection of parks in this park city. It covers thousands of acres and has lawns and ponds. It's a good choice to come here with family and friends to enjoy the sun during holidays. When we arrived, there were already many cars parked on the roadside. The lawns in the park can be used for camping, and there were already many tents set up. Some families brought outdoor grills and were barbecuing together, enjoying the weekend after the cold wave.
We put Toffee on the grass, and he kept trembling. He was probably scared. My girlfriend took out a cat treat from her bag and tried to calm him down, but Toffee tried to snatch it from her hand, which led to my girlfriend scolding him. Toffee made a pitiful face, and my girlfriend couldn't bear it, so she tore the treat into pieces for him to enjoy. After eating, he didn't move at all, which attracted the attention of people around us. While others were walking their dogs, we were walking our cat, which was indeed quite unusual.
Faced with this lazy Toffee, we had to take him back home first and then continue our outing.
We had made plans with our colleagues to go to Tongzilin to find some good food. We took the subway there first. When we came out of the subway station, we walked from Tongzilin North Road to South Road. This area has many foreign restaurants due to historical reasons, but the business is not very booming (mainly because we can't afford it... we were waiting for our colleagues to decide what to eat. Our colleagues told us that it's very close to Yulin Road, where there are many food options. They also mentioned that they had been to a Michelin-starred restaurant last time and thought it was good. After looking at the menu of that restaurant, we immediately headed there.
The restaurant is called "Luji Zhengjie" and is located somewhere south of Yulin Road. The most popular dish on the menu is the "Spicy Chicken with Chili Peppers". Our colleagues told us that when they came last time, they had noodles soaked in the sauce of the spicy chicken, which was delicious. It reminded me of the feeling of eating "Da Pan Ji" (a famous dish from Shanxi) with noodles. We arrived at the restaurant around 8 PM. None of us had eaten anything, but we still had to wait outside in the cold wind.
The restaurant mainly serves Sichuan cuisine, so we ordered some common Sichuan dishes like "Garlic Pork" and "Green Pepper Fish Slices". However, when these dishes were served, I realized that the dishes in this restaurant were all modified. The traditional way of making garlic pork is simple - boil the pork slices and then mix them with the sauce. The sauce is the essence of this dish. But in this restaurant, the pork was wrapped in bamboo shoots and served with the sauce. The combination of the sauce and the bamboo shoots created a subtle sweetness that activated my taste buds and made me want to continue chewing. The texture was layered, with a crispy outer layer and a tender inner layer, followed by the aroma of chili oil mixed with various spices. It was truly a taste bud climax with just one bite of meat.
One dish had a ceremonial feel to it. The dish was served in a container similar to a clay pot. When the dish was served, the lid was closed, and then a waiter came over and ignited the alcohol fuel scattered around it to reheat the dish. Then they used a wooden hammer to tap and open the lid, and said some blessings to the customers. It was quite unique. The dish in the pot was stewed beef, and the meat was already tender and easily fell off the bone. The meat had a chewy texture, and there wasn't a strong aroma of spices. I could taste a bit of saltiness, which might be from the spices blending into the meat. My taste buds were overwhelmed by the flavors.
While waiting outside, we noticed that many tables would order a youtiao (Chinese fried dough stick). We were curious why there was youtiao on the menu. Then we saw a dish called "Chicken Feet with Youtiao". We wanted to try how this dish was eaten. The chicken feet were served first, and there was a lot of soup in the plate. The waiter told us that it would be spicy, and when the youtiao was served, they would help us cut it into small pieces and soak it in the soup of the chicken feet. I couldn't help but salivate. Carbs and flavorful soup are always the best combination. The youtiao that had been soaked for a while still had a crispy texture, and the soup of the chicken feet was spicy. I don't recommend people who can't handle spicy food to soak too much soup. The soup was thick and had a salty and fragrant taste. If you ate too much, the soup might accidentally flow out of your mouth (laughs).
I don't know how everyone feels about eating rabbit meat. My girlfriend doesn't eat rabbit, but if you tell her it's chicken, she will eat it. This time there was no rabbit meat, only a dessert that looked like a rabbit. It had a filling in the middle and a blueberry as the "heart" of the rabbit. It was very creative, and it should have a coconut milk jelly texture when eaten. But the cute shape of the rabbit made it hard to take a bite.
Neither my girlfriend nor I had ever been to a Michelin-starred restaurant before, so this was our first time, and it was a Michelin-starred restaurant that served large portions and tasted great. I highly recommend everyone to give it a try. The total cost for four people was over 600, and we even had a lot of leftovers to take home.