Simply the best? Martyn Kelly’s letter from Chengdu

‘What a westerner might consider principled could easily come across as rude.’

Daci Temple in downtown Chengdu neatly captures the paradoxes of modern China. It is a shrine for a religion whose adherents aspire to rise above materialism, but set within a shopping mall. Many of the worshippers carry bags advertising western brands. It is, however, an oasis of sorts, since the sound of construction and traffic is muted rather than silenced.

There is a positive vibe within the temple precinct, which seems to serve as a community hub for older people. My guess is that there was a Buddhist equivalent of an Alpha Course going on in one room, while another was full of people eating a communal meal. Next door is a tea shop, where visitors enjoy vegetarian food in a shady courtyard. The highlight for me was a skewer of tofu skin, one of many local recipes that would convert any tofu sceptic. Chengdu is home to mapo tofu – a fiery mix of tofu, red bean paste, chilli and Sichuan pepper – and we also love ‘stinky tofu’, a fermented version with a whiff of blue cheese.

Later that same day we were treated to a hotpot. Imagine a convivial fondue, dipping bread into a cheese sauce, but replace the cheese with a fiery broth, and the bread with whatever you like. Expect upwards of a dozen different dishes, each with a raw ingredient ready to be held in the simmering broth. There are vegetarian versions but, traditionally, the hotpot epitomises ‘nose-to-tail’ eating. Strictly speaking, we were about two inches shy of both extremities, but you get the drift. These are not the tastiest cuts of meat, but that’s missing the point: Chinese people value texture and ‘mouth feel’ in a way that is alien to the modern western palette.

Strict Buddhists aside, there are few vegetarians or vegans in modern China. The tofu dishes whose wonders I was extolling are almost always served alongside meat- or fish-based dishes, and a flavour-conscious chef would not think twice about adding some minced pork to enhance mapo tofu. It certainly messes with western minds conditioned to think in terms of categorical food tribes. What a westerner might consider a principled stand could easily come across as rude or insensitive to a Chinese host. Learn to roll with a broadly plant-based diet rather than a rigorous insistence on a meat-free existence, and you will thrive.

This is about more than manners and cultural differences. It struck me that Chinese people of my generation were brought up during the cultural revolution, and are now enjoying a long-denied comfort. As in the west, simpler lifestyles make more sense to generations that never experienced rationing.

The word ‘simple’ implies having material superfluities that can be stripped away. Shift the historical benchmarks, however, and what we see as a virtue becomes, in the eyes of most Chinese, a return to an era that most would prefer to forget.

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