My Halloween Cheering Section

These are my people... They stare at the back of my head as I slave away at work, silently praising my me for the effort...

Happy Halloween

No I'm nowhere near the picture. But my friend Oscar is. Guess which one?

Here is a hint -

He's the one sporting the Ron Jeremy 'stache.

But that could be a left over smeared up bean burrito on his lips.

Chengdu hot pot...again

So it was that I get invited to our newly wed Mitch and Mei's place for some Chengdu style hot pot. Chengdu, when I was there in the midst of China, they were raising a marble statue of Chairman Mao, and I was questioning my friend's fidelity. But this time, its different. It's Sichuang cooking (all that super hot red stuff which both numbs and kills all tastes in your mouth) in the states. Yay.

But that's not the story here... The story is the day after.

After I over ate the completely delicious hot pot on Sunday, I had to have more. Good thing Mei gave me a whole packet of Sichuang Hot Pot base for my eventual enjoyment.

This is the packet of Chongqing Hot Pot Soup base. It makes the soup completely threateningly red as to make all jalapeños posers cry out for mama.

And that enjoyment is... now!!!

Yes. 24 hours later, I had to have some. And here is the initial results before I put anything else into the pot.

Red like the guy from Charlie Daniel's band when he went to Georgia.

And i had to put in a bunch of met and veggies to make it edible. Even then an entire 2 liter bottle of diet Coke went down with my meal.

The leftover is vicious looking as well.


I tossed in a bunch of bean noodles, mushrooms, and some chicken broth to tame the heat. Because, after all, going over 8 large sheets of Brawny for the sweat just isn't worth it.

I'm looking at the finished product. A few beef and fish balls floating on top, and it is going to make a wonderful meal come Tuesday at lunch.

Ma-La Hot Pot 3 days in a row...