My friend made Malatang from scratch

In my desperation to recapture the taste of China that I so miss since I left last July, my friends tried to recreate Malatang (麻辣烫) at home by following a simple recipe from the internet, which unfortunately I did not jot down. So I can't tell you the precise ingredients and measurements of what actually went into the stock, but it turned out to be very spicy and delicious, even though the taste wasn't quite at the level of the malatang I used to have on the streets of Xiamen.

First we went to Food Hall at Plaza Indonesia for the ingredients. We bought lots of meatballs and seafood meatballs, tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables. For the broth itself, we bought pork and chicken bones, garlic, star anise, ginger, powder chili, sichuan peppercorns (numbing goodness). And that's about it.

We did not put any MSG into the stock, because I HATE MSG!!!!!!

We made the stock and then added the other stuff in. I liked it. Next time, I would add more garlic and ginger to the mix and try to get some chili pepper with sesame oil in it. Maybe that would do the trick a bit.

In China I ate: Braised Beef Noodles (红烧牛肉面)

When a brand new mall opened in the district of Jimei where I went to school, my friends and I immediately went to visit and tried out one of the restaurants (everything was 50% off!). We eventually went to a place called Chengdu Snacks, which I guess would have food from Chengdu.

I ordered the braised beef noodles. On the menu it is called Hong Shao Niurou Mian (红烧牛肉面). I liked it, as I love spicy food. The broth was infused with dried red chili pepper, giving it a very blood-red color. Of course there was also beef and coriander leaves in the broth.

I went on a few websites and have read that this dish actually originated from Taiwan, but I am not sure. Whether it is from Chengdu or from Taiwan, it tasted darn good.