Journey to Chung King

Nothing gets in the way between me and my Chung King hot pot, not even fallen trees, broken traffic lights, glass shards! Sichuan peppercorns, here I come :-) Ok, there was like a huge windstorm in LA last week, and Pasadena, where Princess Cat's sister Cinderella lives, was especially hard hit.

When I finally picked up C, I was like, phew, now it's only 15 minutes between me and my Chung King hot pot! You see, I didn't have lunch that day. So I drove Baby Catmobile like a maniac down Colorado straight for Chung King Restaurant on San Gabriel Boulevard. After I turned on SG Boulevard, suddenly I see lots of red backlights, WTH? It turned out the lights at the intersection of Hungtinton and SG Boulevard were out. WHA? After 15 excruciating minutes, we finally passed the non-working light... and I was like, yes, we are almost there, when suddenly I see a roadblock, WTH! They closed down SG Boulevard? How? Why? But Chung King Restaurant! We were forced onto a tiny side alley, where I promptly called Chung King to ensure they were still open, yes, they are still open. Now, Plan B, we turned onto Rosemead Boulevard, where Baby Catmobile zoomed pass the other cars, I looked down at my GPS, k, we are close to Las Tunas, one block away from Chung King Restaurant. But suddenly, I see lots of red back lights again. NOOOOO. So I sat patiently and waited my turn to pass another non-functioning major intersection traffic light. After 15 minutes, I opened my eyes wide and stared into my GPS again, we are at -- Las Tunas! So we haven't gone anywhere. Wahhh... Anyhoo, we finally passed, and we turned on Mission, then turned back onto San Gabriel, yay! And the cheesy Chung King sign is right in front of us! Then I suddenly saw a massive spread of glass shards on the street right in front of Chung King... NOOO, Baby Catmobile's feet. Anyhoo, I was too hungry at that point to think much.. and here are what we got. Ahem, this is my new S95's virgin shot :)

Yeah, I was a bit embarrassed to order this bland dish at a Sichuanese restaurant, but our stomach linings need defense against Sichuan peppercorns :)

Here it is: The Chung King Hot Pot. The Holy Grail of Sichuanese cuisine -- it's fiery, spicy, tingly, filled with pork, intestines, bean sprouts, tofu, tofu skin, black mushroom ears, cabbage, baby bamboo shoots...

Afterwards, we went to Tenren Tea House and had some fruit tea and some Xmas-y looking tea :)