Hotpot is what Chongqing is famous for, but the city eats a whole family of dishes that locals group under the term jianghu cooking - rough, generous, heavily seasoned food that came out of the river ports, the markets and the dockyards rather than from restaurant kitchens. Three of them are worth ordering in the first two days.
Maoxuewang
Maoxuewang is duck blood curd cooked with tripe, luncheon meat, eel, bean sprouts and sometimes pork intestine in a broth of chili oil, Sichuan pepper, fermented bean paste and pork fat. The blood curd is soft and mild, which balances the heat, and the dish is served in a wide bowl with the oil still bubbling. It is said to have started in Ciqikou, the old town on the Jialing river, and it is one of the defining dishes of the city.
Shuizhu fish
Shuizhu means water-boiled, but there is nothing light about it: fillets of river fish are poached briefly, then the bowl is covered with dried chilies and Sichuan pepper and hot oil is poured over the top so that everything sizzles. Under the oil the broth is clean and the fish is delicate. Scoop from the bottom, and put the fish on rice rather than eating it neat.
Laziji
Laziji comes from Geleshan, on the ridge west of the city, and the classic version is a plate with more dried chili than chicken: chunks of bone-in chicken are deep-fried until crisp and then tossed with a huge quantity of dried red chilies and Sichuan pepper. You pick the chicken out of the chilies, and the reward for the search is genuinely good. Nanshan, on the other side of the river, is known for a different chicken dish cooked with spring water and green chili.
Practical notes
Because these dishes are rich and oily, order one per two people and add a plain vegetable and a bowl of rice. Restaurants in the city serve them all day, and the ones near Ciqikou and along the Nan'an riverside are used to visitors. Ask for mild if you need it, and keep a bowl of plain rice and some vinegar on the table - both help. Vegetarians should look for the mushroom and tofu sections of the menu rather than trying to adapt these dishes.
