Early morning - xiaomian at the counter
Chongqing eats its first meal standing up. Xiaomian is a bowl of thin wheat noodles dressed in the bowl rather than in a pot: chilli oil, ground pork, crushed peanut, pickled mustard greens, spring onion, and a spoonful of the starchy water the noodles were boiled in. It costs almost nothing, it is ordered in about nine words, and the city treats it as a public institution. Your guide takes you to a counter that opens before six and orders two versions - one at the mild end, one with the full chilli - so you can taste where the line actually is. Vegetarian bowls are available at the same stall.
Morning - the wet market
The market we visit is a working one, not a tourist street. You walk the produce aisles with your guide and look at what a Chongqing kitchen actually buys: dried chillies sorted by heat and by colour, Sichuan peppercorn, fermented broad-bean paste, pickled vegetables in open barrels, fresh tofu, river fish, and the blocks of beef tallow that give the city's hotpot its body. The guide explains which stallholders supply which restaurants, what the different grades of peppercorn do to the tongue, and why a chilli that smells sweet is not the one you want.
Lunch - jianghu cooking
Lunch is jianghu cai, the "rivers-and-lakes" cooking of the Sichuan basin: big flavours, rough cuts, heavy seasoning and no interest in presentation, cooked in the small family restaurants the locals call fly kitchens. Expect dishes such as water-boiled beef, twice-cooked pork, dry-fried green beans and a clear soup to rest the palate. The meal is ordered by your guide and a mild table is arranged at the same time.
Afternoon - a slow interlude
After eating, the pace drops. There is a tea session with a platter of the small sweet things sold on every Chongqing street corner: ice jelly, cold rice-flour shrimp, sweet-fermented-rice soup and sesame cakes. Your guide uses the pause to explain how Sichuan and Chongqing cooking differ, why chilli arrived here so late, and what "ma" - the numbing sensation from peppercorn - is actually doing on the tongue.
Evening - the night food street
After dark the day ends where the city eats late. You walk a night food street with your guide, who orders as you go: skewers lifted out of a communal pot of spiced broth, charcoal-grilled river fish and aubergine, cold noodles, and a bowl of soured plum drink to finish. Vegetarians are straightforward here - the skewer counters do tofu, potato, lotus root and greens, and the grill does not use meat stock for those items if asked. Portions are small and shared; the point is breadth, not volume.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.
