It’s Trevor James

And today I’m in Leshan, deep Sichuan

We’re going for a full on Chinese street food experience

I came here to eat

And I’m hungry

This is Leshan

Deep in Sichuan

It’s a street food mecca

It’s packed with unique specialties

That you can’t find in other parts of China

I came here to eat it all

And enjoyed 8 unique Chinese street foods in this video

Starting out bright and early

I went to try a Chinese street breakfast

With a steamed beef pocket

The fenzhengrou is a steamed spicy beef

It’s found all throughout Sichuan

But here in Leshan they make it into a breakfast pocket

It’s first steamed with chilies and rice powder

And then they add a little pickled radish

And some sliced potato

Oh and some Sichuan pepper

Look at that, that’s raw ground Sichuan peppercorn

That’s going to be a great morning

Oh it’s like a little pocket of glee

She’s just going to plop it in there

That is pickled radish and…

It’s stuffed in a Chinese mo bread

This is a Chinese Leshan breakfast sandwich

I was not expecting that

The bread is so soft

And the fenzhengrou is really soft too

There is that steamed rice meal on it

Which has a nice super soft mouthfeel

Spicy, it’s a little sweet

That’s what is unique about this one

I’ve never tried a fenzheng niurou like that before

And next up, I went to try another specialty Chinese street food found in Leshan

The hongtangbing

It’s a dark brown sugar pastry

Quickly crisped

And then baked in a coal oven on the stressed

That looks really good

Careful

Look at that fresh coal oven

Look at that hot coal oven

Oh, put it right in there

You can smell that

This is exciting

Come to Leshan for food and you won’t be disappointed

Oh that gooey brown sugar

Oh wow

Look at that, look on the inside

It’s all brown sugar

Oh it’s like a pocket of gooey brown sugar

I gotta go in

I gotta go right for the kill

Oh you can taste that thick, super sweet brown sugar

And this bread is really soft

It’s like super soft, almost delicate like bread

With that smoky aroma from the coal

It’s dripping

It’s oozing with ultra sweet sticky brown sugar

And now we’re getting to the good stuff

Next up is Leshan’s specialty own hand made steamed dumplings

The shaomai, you can find shaomai in Cantonese cuisine too

But here in Sichuan, the specialty is in the way they are wrapped

Being pinched rather loosely

So they almost look like a flower

Pork and onions!

So we got it all here

Look at these beauties

This is special shaomai from Leshan

I had no idea you could come all the way to Sichuan to get Shaomai

Just like in Hong Kong, but these have to be much different

You have chili oil here

They also give you pure MSG if you want

To add to your chili oil, and salt

But I know already I don’t need those

I like the pure flavour

So we’re just going to dip that Shaomai

It’s not beautiful, but that’s what’s beautiful about it

The skin on here, it’s almost papery

So it has a really unique texture

It’s kind of papery here, and soft here

What’s really nice about this is the hongyou, the chili oil

It tastes like homemade, smokey, and very xiang

As they say in Chinese

That’s what it’s all about

This homemade hongyou chili oil

It’s fresh with packed chili flavour

Smoky and delicious

In these nice, juicy, plump, papery shaomao

A little later I passed by a shop serving blade sheared noodles right there on the street side

And I couldn’t resist but to stop for a bowl of their beef noodle soup with bamboo shoots

That red braised sauce is so spicy and flavourful

To die for

We have some classic daoxiao mian here

Blade sheared noodles

Right on the streetside in Leshan

Honestly the street food scene here is off the hook

That is what it’s all about

Look at these beef blade sheared noodles

Let’s try that

That is -

That is spectacular

Take me to the next level noodles right here

Look at how thick that hongshao sauce is

It’s oily as well

So it sticks on to the noodles

And you get a mouth

You get a mouthful of flavour that just coats every tastebud you have

And after that came a spicy lunch feast of Boboji

The special skewered cooked veg and chicken innards and organs

They are soaked in a cold spiced oily soup

With 2 special variations

One is a clear peppercorn broth

That is spicy and numbing

And the other is infused with thousands of chilies

So it’s spicy and fragrant

You just take what you want

And don’t use chopsticks

And then they pass it on to the next customer

So it’s all the chicken innards

Chicken pieces

Chicken feet

Kidneys

Organs

Wings

Everything

And then there is a few vegetables here as well

And I have a couple cute kids watching me here

That is colourful

It’s like christmas

They have red and green fresh chilies

In an ultra numbing

Tengjiao oil

Which is raw sichuan peppercorn oil

Like green, right from the stalk

And full of veg

This is what it’s all about

You gotta dip it in the numbing and cold and refreshing oil

In Chinese they say Xiang which means fragrant

But it really means that the flavour is bursting

And infused into everything

So your mouth just comes alive with every bite

And that is what this is right here

It’s more than fragrant

It’s xiang

And after exploring around the back alleys of Leshan

I found a deep and dark stall

Serving Leshan special sweet skinned duck

A super succulent and flavourful duck

That’s boiled in oil and covered in rock sugar water

We’re going to have a special tianpiya, sweet skinned duck

Look at this

Look at that

That’s what it’s all about

The sweet skinned duck in Leshan

That is really good

That is ultra superior sweet skinned duck here

And then for a pre dinner snack

I came to try the famous Leshan tofu brain AKA doufunao

It’s made with silken tofu, chili oil, preserved vegetables, peanuts, garlic and cilantro

You can order it with steamed spicy beef as well

So this is the Leshan doufunao, tofu brain

They take a douhua which is like silken tofu

They load it up with chilies and oil and spice

And this is fenzhengrou

This is what I had in that breakfast sandwich this morning

Oh look at that, it looks spicy and crunchy

And then they add hongshufen in there

Which is sweet potato starch noodles

So it’s a real mixture of textures and flavour in one bite

That’s pretty salty

That’s really salty

You can taste that it’s like loaded with MSG

Because it’s very flavourful

And spicy as well

It’s like an MSG spice bomb

And for the final meal of the night

I came to try the special qiaojiao beef soup

You can order up any part of the cow you want

So I went for the regular beef soup

Plus a bowl of beef torpedo soup for your entertainment value

Adding on a bowl of spicy and numbing pork blood too

Oh it’s frozen cow torpedo

Oh it’s all from nature, OK

We have a full on feast here

This is the beef torpedo soup

Look at those big chunks of torpedo

I can’t believe I’m going to eat this

And then over here

This is the qiaojiao niurou

This is a Sichuan, Leshan specialty

Right from this town Leshan

It’s like in a rich beef stock

And then over here

This is like a pork blood

This is called Maoxuewang

This is pork blood in a hot chili oil

Look at all that chili oil

With fresh green onions on top

Oh man, I can’t believe I’m doing this

Dip it into the dried chili flakes

And take a bite

Oh that’s rubbery

It’s just like the first time I had torpedo in Malaysia

It’s rubbery

It tastes like cartilage, or tendon, or tripe

It doesn’t much flavour

Let’s taste that

It’s like nicely sliced soft beef

In a really nutritious and hearty beef broth

Let’s try that out

Oh yea

That is much better than the torpedo

And the beef is so hearty

This is pork blood in a really thick chili oil

Look at all that chili oil

We’re going to try that out

Oh that is salty

Oh, that is really salty

Quite oily

The pork blood is really soft

It’s like a really light pudding

It’s like a pork blood pudding

So thank you so much for watching my food and travel videos

It really means a lot to me

Please click that thumbs up

Leave me a comment and subscribe to this channel if you haven’t already

It means a lot to me

I have a train to catch

I’m heading back to Chengdu

Thanks guys, it was a wonderful trip to Leshan