Travel to Yangshuo, Guilin China. New West Street Best Food

After my little siesta and slow recovery from the carb overload, we headed out with one of the front desk girls that was getting off of work.  I invited her to join us for dinner under one circumstance… she picked the place.  She agreed and was so happy that she was able to practice her English… so I kept her talking for the better part of 5 hours as little by little I had her show us around the real Yangshou!  I know, natural genius!

I was deeply saddened for Rachel that the dog restaurant (see photo above) was already closed for the night-she got off the hook.  We sampled some fresh fish soup, local ice cream, the “on a stick” stand, and granted some more noodles!

Fish Soup- great experience we picked out the fish (a bit demented) then were escorted up the stairs to our table.  Out came the portable stove with a pot of water.  This is one I had not seen yet.  The pot was fired up with a plethora of fresh aromatic herbs and green onions off to the side.  I had to remind myself I was still in China, not south east Asia!  Then from no where the assign appeared with his new victim cut up into 10 or so pieces (bones and all). We differed to Sara (our new local friend) to do the honors.  She started dropping the aromatics in the pot along with the fish heads.  The room is filled with a strong bouquet of ginger and floral scent of herbs. 15 minutes goes by, then Sara drops the rest of the fish in pot and turns it off.  (Now I am all for eating some crazy things but there is no way I am eating 1/4 cooked river fish).  Sara then advises we wait (I think it was a ploy for her to keep practicing her English)… waiting… waiting… waiting…. We finally stop talking in Chin-glish and Sara reaches for the pot.  The Chinese will always serve others before pouring or taking for themselves, how refreshing!   The soup she conjured up was superb, minus the 450 pin bones. I would note the restaurant but my crash course in Mandarin didn’t cover the characters, let it be known as “FISH POT”.

Local Ice Cream-Tarro for me please!-I grabbed a quick snap shot of this as we were in the mix of people packed down West Street (the main artery of Yangshou).  The ice cream was a perfect temperature, very smooth in flavor, but was hoping for just a little more of a savory flavor.  The ice cream base had to much sugar and masked a fair amount of the tarro.  Rachel & Sara had chocolate something-or-other.

Stick Stand- there is not a country in the world that does not cook something on a stick!  I can say back at home (Texas) it’s the famous Fleichman’s corn dogs, amongst other things.  Asia and the middle east take the cake with the sticks!  You can find just about anything from tofu to dog meat, its all for the taking, and for those more adventuresome you can often find innards.  (I will leave that for Zimmern).   Again, we deffered to Sara and let her pick a few items and we all shared.  I think Sara was in true heaven, she was really getting into showing me the true eats of Yangshou!  I’m sold!

Guilin Noodles- Sara was the PERFECT person to have with us for this last experience of the evening.  We went to a place off on some side street (apparently she frequents), and she showed me how the noodles were made.  I found it weird that she just walks up grabs a bowl and helps herself, but hey it was her show! The noodles that she made for the table were topped with some extra chili and more of those crushed peanuts.  She had the magic touch, she laughed at me when I started telling her about the Lamien noodles from Shanghai.  She put her hand on my shoulder and said the real noodles come from Guilin, it reminded me of the BBQ wars in the states!

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