dust and mala (麻辣)

Some of the best places are the ones you will never find on your own. They evade happenstance and lucky turns. They are places that need an introduction, that require someone who knows the way.

In Chengdu, these places can be warehouses clogged with old Chinese furniture. And getting there requires a friend who already knows where to turn off the highway and when to start driving the wrong way down a side road. 

We arrived to sprawling landscapes of old wooden stuff. Row upon row of furniture, with the clunky pieces pooled at the bottom and the wispy stuff all piled on top. We passed armoires and chairs and intricate wooden screens; shuffled through dirt and dodged raindrops sneaking through the ceiling. 

We did our best to see past the dust, and when it was so thick that it smothered all imagination we licked a finger and dredged it through the powder to see what was hiding beneath. And the thing to know before you fall in love with any of it is that the dust moves aside but the prices don’t budge.

After you pay too much for that thing you found, you should eat because all of that exploring can leave one famished. So our friend took us to a small place that serves spicy wonton soup. It’s the mala (麻辣) kind of spice which means that it makes your lips thrum, drenching your mouth in a numbing buzz that all the orange soda in the world can’t take away. And damn, it’s good, but if you’re being honest you might say it could use just a touch of salt.

At one point in our meal, a man set up a hill of ground pork and wonton skins on the table next to ours and started crafting fresh wonton. Ignoring the half-moons of dirt under his nails it felt like the right way to eat. Real food put together with real hands. Wonton folded with just the right crook.

There’s a rhythm to it and the man was two times as fast as the woman who occasionally joined in. For every two he made, she'd make one. But at one point he answered his cellphone and his pace slowed. It could have been her chance to catch up, but she didn't. She had to serve the customers and someone had ordered two more bowls of numb.