In China, food is a serious affair, and one that is best enjoyed with as many people as possible. In the States, if you show up to a restaurant with a party of 12 and no reservation, you’re likely to set the staff into a frenzy of table-rearranging — and that’s if you’re not turned away at the door. Here, most niceish restaurants are filled with oversize round tables, with just a few four-tops off to the side. There’s a good reason for this — Chinese food is, really, best eaten in a large group.
Since everything is served family-style, the more people you have, the more dishes you can try. It doesn’t matter if the restaurant can’t get everything to the table at once, since if they did, the food would get cold long before it was finished. The best Chinese dinners are hours-long affairs, with dishes trickling out of the kitchen about as quickly as they are finished. The meal is a leisurely stroll through the menu, beginning with cold dishes and moving through stirfries to cold fruit or small pastries. Bouts of eating are interrupted by spells of conversation and the occasional round of “棒子, 棒子, 棒,” a Chinese drinking game along the lines of “rock, paper, scissors.” At such meals, the lazy susan is a key force for equality — it keeps everyone from hoarding the best dishes.
This lazy susan is laden with Hunan favorites: spicy fish, spicy cauliflower, spicy pork, spicy noodles... You get the idea.
Unfortunately, all the advantages of eating in a group in China become disadvantages if there are just a couple of you. Nothing says “romantic date” like sitting on opposite sides of a table meant for twelve. And since there’s only so much that two people can eat, you can only try two or three dishes. (Or just one or two, if you’re on you’re own.) But if you’re backpacking around China, there’s no reason to eat in a small group if you don’t want to. Talk to people at your hostel — there are sure to be at least a handful of adventurous foodies ready to break out of the gongbao jiding rut. And if you’re really stuck, seek out a restaurant like Changsha’s Huogongdian, where standard Hunanese dishes are served dim sum-style. The small portions allow you to sample the full breadth of the menu without sacrificing your wallet — or your waistline.
If you’re in Changsha and want to replicate the Hunanese feast shown above, head to “Food World” on the east side of the river. The restaurant is just off of Shaoshan Lu (韶山路) near Laodong Lu (劳动路). If you are facing the Pinghetang Department Store on Shaoshan Lu, head down the small road just to the right of the department store. Food World will be on your right. (More Changsha food recommendations here.)
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To (dim) sum it up in a word: SPICY!