Latest / bit of a Rambler / 009 Favorite China Foods Part 2
Transcript
- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,080 Hello, my name is Kai and I am a bit of a rambler. 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:08,660 I like to travel, learn and tell stories. 3 00:00:08,660 --> 00:00:12,320 And I'm going to tell the second part of a story I started the last time because today 4 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:17,640 is all about my favorite Chinese foods, foods. 5 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:19,400 That's right, part two. 6 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:25,680 Now I named a bunch of very specific things that knock my socks off in the last installment, 7 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:29,360 like Pigeon Coyote and Malaswan Thai La Ro. 8 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:37,560 So today, I realized I didn't mention the broadest things and the first thing that convinced 9 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:43,000 me Chinese food was now my favorite food. 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:44,800 You know what else I want to say? 11 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:50,920 Before I went to China, I did not like Chinese food as a whole. 12 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:57,320 Every time I ate Chinese food in the United States, it was very bland, way too oily, sickly 13 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:04,040 sweet, or had some other fatal error in its construction. 14 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:08,000 So the only thing I could ever eat was an egg roll and I couldn't even eat many of 15 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,760 those in the States because they were just oily, goopy messes. 16 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:17,280 So I was kind of worried about going to China, but not that worried. 17 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,400 I was like, they're going to have something I like over there. 18 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:21,160 It's fine. 19 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:28,440 And the second night in Beijing, the night after the day I arrived, I was taken by the other 20 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:35,320 teachers in the school to my first Shao Khao, which is Chinese barbecue. 21 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:44,720 So Shao Khao is a grill, some spices already mixed together in an old Coke bottle with holes 22 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:50,560 poked in the top of the cap so they can spray it over whatever they're going to grill. 23 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,560 And then a small squeeze bottle of oil next to that. 24 00:01:54,560 --> 00:02:01,000 And that is a simple setup and then there's a big glass case behind or a whole bunch of 25 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:08,520 platter set out on the table near the cook with everything with a nokey mushrooms, shiitake 26 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:16,720 mushrooms, pork, bacon, beef, everything, like at least 50 different things that you can 27 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:21,840 choose from every single place has dozens and dozens of choices. 28 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:26,820 And you just put everything you want on a plate, give it to them, they grill it up for you 29 00:02:26,820 --> 00:02:28,980 and then serve it. 30 00:02:28,980 --> 00:02:33,680 And when I started doing it, you could actually get a mini luzza for your own table. 31 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:39,320 Luzza is oven and they put a few charcoal briquettes in a little grill on top. 32 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:44,320 It's about the size of a shoe box and they'll deliver to your table and then you can grill 33 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:46,840 it how you want to grill it. 34 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:50,320 But either way, if you have them grilled for you or you grill it and then you put the 35 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:55,520 spices on with the oil, it's delicious. 36 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,320 And the variety is so important. 37 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:01,520 You can get chicken hearts, heart is my favorite cut of meat. 38 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:05,400 It has a very firm texture but is still easy to bite. 39 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:12,320 It's just like an al dente meat if you I can use that comparison to al dente pasta. 40 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:17,000 You get a little more texture in the bite but it has a much stronger flavor overall, heart 41 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,560 does than other cuts of meat. 42 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:24,920 And then after chicken heart, you can get a skewer of inoki mushrooms. 43 00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:31,160 And boy, when those are cooked, they take the longest but after 15 or 20 minutes, they 44 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:37,200 taste amazing with the spice mix sprinkled all over it and a little bit of oil. 45 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:42,280 And then you can take some beef skewers, enjoy a chicken wing. 46 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:49,680 And what I like about this actually is that they're not caked in a very sweet barbecue sauce, 47 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:54,600 which is my problem with American barbecue, which can be very good. 48 00:03:54,600 --> 00:04:01,400 But it has so much sauce on it, I'm not even really eating the food I'm eating the sauce. 49 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:05,040 Now I do love some barbecue sauces and I'll happily eat the sauce. 50 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:10,000 But it is nice with Chinese food that I'm eating and getting all of these different flavors 51 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:11,560 from the foods themselves. 52 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:19,680 So get some geotai in there, which is garlic chives, get some xyanggu, which is a shiitake mushrooms, 53 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:26,720 grill up some quail eggs, different types of sausages, alternating pork and jalapeno, 54 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:33,680 red and green pepper stuffed whole fish, marinated pork and beef sticks, potato, every type 55 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:40,800 of tofu and soybean derivative there is, octopus shrimp, I mean, there's like I said, dozens 56 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:44,560 of choices at every single barbecue place. 57 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:52,200 And you can just take as much or as little as you want, literally three pieces or 103 pieces. 58 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,040 And you give them to the person, they'll cook them all up for you or you take it to your 59 00:04:56,040 --> 00:04:58,400 table and start grilling them all. 60 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:04,000 And then you and your friends sit around this table, grill for hours, four, six, eight 61 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:05,000 hours. 62 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:13,760 Very frequently we would go to our favorite spot at the time, just the best grill master lounge 63 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:18,660 around, get there after work at eight or something and we'd be there till two or three in the 64 00:05:18,660 --> 00:05:23,080 morning because beer is an essential part of this equation. 65 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:27,400 They also have cold beer that usually made the favorite one because often beers are just 66 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:32,840 kept in a plastic rack, but they also have the young pizzo, the cool beer and foreigners, 67 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:34,680 all like the cold beer. 68 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:40,700 So you crack a beer, wait for your stuff to cook, eat a few skewers, have some more beer, 69 00:05:40,700 --> 00:05:47,400 wait for the next round to cook and you can just slowly, while the night away enjoying 70 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:52,300 a dinner with your friends while talking about whatever you want to talk about and very 71 00:05:52,300 --> 00:05:56,720 relaxed setting and environment and attitude. 72 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:03,320 And it's so communal sometimes because you're cooking together or sometimes because the 73 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,960 guy who's cooking sucks at cooking chicken wings or doesn't do them the way you all don't 74 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:08,080 like it. 75 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:13,720 So it's a very fun way to everyone get together eat together and everyone's going to get 76 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:17,960 what they want to eat because there's so much to choose from the spice mixes perfect. 77 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:23,080 It's usually the main Chinese spices all mixed together, little bit of oil on it cooked 78 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:28,400 simply and all the flavors from the food you can really taste them. 79 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:33,520 Chowkow is so much fun and I only ate that as the communal food. 80 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:40,880 I didn't really get into hot pot yet or chuan chuan chian or chuan chuan which I those 81 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:42,640 are next coming up. 82 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,300 So I was blown away by chowkow. 83 00:06:45,300 --> 00:06:49,600 It was just all the foods I like and then a whole bunch of new foods that I found out I 84 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:54,880 loved like chicken heart or a no key mushrooms grilled tofu. 85 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:59,800 I had tried these things but on a grill the flavors are distilled and you have this little 86 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,320 spice mix and you have a cold beer next to you and your friends around you and everyone's 87 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:09,440 having a great time talking and eating and at a leisurely pace and you can buy as much 88 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:16,360 as you want because you're making so much money relative to the cost of living. 89 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:23,120 English teachers make as much as a middle class businessman in China probably with a four 90 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:30,520 year degree and at times more than them so that's like twenty five hundred a month and your 91 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:35,240 cost of living is easily five hundred month or less if you're trying to save at all and 92 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,120 a thousand a month if you're not trying to save it all. 93 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:43,520 So at the end of each month you have an extra fifteen hundred pretty easily every single 94 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:44,680 month. 95 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:50,240 This was the first time in my life that I had enough money to eat what I wanted and 96 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:58,760 as much as I wanted and boy did I eat what I wanted I just devoured buckets of the food 97 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:04,960 like it was crazy and you know I started running so much like I mentioned in the last food 98 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:10,840 podcast and that was good because if I didn't I would have exploded. 99 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:15,920 I found out when I visited my family back in the states that year for the first time 100 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:21,120 since I was in China that I had gained like twenty thirty pounds a lot more than I had ever 101 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:26,560 gained in my life and when I saw a picture from my trip a few weeks later that my mom 102 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:33,400 mailed to me I was shocked and asked my whole family did nobody why didn't anybody tell 103 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:42,120 me I got fat and everyone was like we didn't get like fat fat yeah you were just kind of fat 104 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:47,240 we thought you knew and I should have it was pretty apparent but maybe I was just so drunk 105 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:52,680 and so completely sated every single day that I didn't even pay attention to how much I 106 00:08:52,680 --> 00:08:58,720 weighed so shout out even though it's not my favorite communal meal anymore will certainly 107 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:04,320 always hold that place in my heart of the first time I had true communal meals and I not 108 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:10,160 only could I afford all the food I wanted I could buy all the food that my friends wanted 109 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:17,760 also and I did that constantly in the first few months I was there I bought most dinner 110 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:21,280 as soon as I got my first paycheck and I realized how much I was going to be saving every 111 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:26,340 month and I knew that I was going to stay there as long as I could I just started buying 112 00:09:26,340 --> 00:09:35,880 dinners because it's maybe twenty bucks here and there for four people and I can just 113 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:41,060 buy my friends who I appreciate who are helping me in this new country and I just enjoy 114 00:09:41,060 --> 00:09:48,280 being around I can buy them dinner that feels great that I can give something back to people 115 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:53,960 who are guiding me through a new reality a new level mode of existence I mean I knew 116 00:09:53,960 --> 00:10:02,120 nothing I needed help talking to everybody except basic basic restaurant food ordering I 117 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:07,760 needed you know a cell phone I needed a new laptop I needed a bicycle so I could ride to 118 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:12,240 and from I needed help with everything so it was really nice that I was able to pay these 119 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:18,360 guys back by buying them shout out every single day because we all love shout out and then 120 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:22,760 after a while you know they're like okay you have something and it got into the normal 121 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:28,840 Chinese thing which is whoever wants to pay pays or you all pay together but more frequently 122 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:34,360 one guy will just throw 100 quay on the table and be like all right I got everyone covered 123 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:39,880 actually the Chinese way is to say you're going to the bathroom and then pay up front and 124 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:44,920 then walk back to the table with a really smug look on your face and wait for everybody 125 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:51,160 else to find out that you bought them dinner I got the bill again okay no you can no guys 126 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:56,080 it's it's okay just a really good person I just I know you know I'm just a great guy what 127 00:10:56,080 --> 00:11:05,760 can I say it's it is fun to pay and give back a little bit and know that you're definitely 128 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:09,800 still gonna have savings at the end of the month anyway because you're making so much relative 129 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:15,920 through the cost of living okay shout out is fantastic I did that the whole time I was 130 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:21,520 in Beijing and those same two friends were with me pretty much the whole time those first two 131 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:28,680 guys that brought me to China and me and bill especially would right our bicycles or motor 132 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:35,280 scooters around and I like to explore clearly I'm a big exploration guy and when we are on 133 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:42,920 the way back I'd see a random alleyway and just ask to let's go down there and many times 134 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:49,480 we go down there there'd be nothing nothing going on for half mile and then in a corner 135 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:54,640 there's you know forced or nothing behind it be in a super narrow alley there's some old 136 00:11:54,640 --> 00:12:00,080 guy with 50 trays of food and a grill in front of him and we would stop and get one quiet 137 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:07,120 beers and eat grill for a few hours and then continue our way home and that was really 138 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:14,000 fun finding new places sometimes the person would be like this is the first white person 139 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:19,720 and this alley ever what are you doing here and it was always just fun finding new places 140 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:26,320 and riding around to new places so you get a bunch of exercise in have great food some 141 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:33,360 beers and then bike on home looking forward to the next time you get to go on this grand 142 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:40,120 Shao Cao adventure which was usually the next day we probably got Shao Cao for five times 143 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:47,000 a week sometimes every single day it's amazing food usually costs less than $10 for each 144 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:54,680 of us and at the time that I went to China it's more expensive now but not much more I was 145 00:12:54,680 --> 00:13:00,400 in a town outside of Beijing that now there's a subway station at and they literally tore 146 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:06,120 down the entire town that used to be there but I lived in a little town called Baijia 147 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:14,480 in the city a 600 milliliter bottle of beer American bottles are 330 for anyone who doesn't 148 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:21,120 know were two or three Remden B two or three Quai Quai is the easy way to say Remden B 149 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:28,800 Remden B is the dollar to the Quai bucks so two or three bucks in Beijing but in our town 150 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:33,880 outside of Beijing by I don't know 45 minute bike ride or something all the beer was one 151 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:42,720 Quai each so 600 milliliter for one Quai about 16 cents at the time with the exchange rate 152 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:49,320 now the math there is six of those bottles is about a gallon for you Americans and a gallon 153 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:56,880 of beer was about one dollar a gallon of beer now Chinese beer is generally lower percentage 154 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:08,200 and this was 2.5 to 3% but a gallon of it was a dollar so 10 20 beers each four or five bucks 155 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:14,080 not crazy to think about and certainly not an impossible feat to overcome because we did 156 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:22,440 that many many times so that is Chinese barbecue to me that is Shao Cao great food every type 157 00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:28,680 of food you could want a true exploration because it's on every street corner sometimes people 158 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:33,800 are peddling soundloon chuz the three-wheeled bikes with it on the back everyone has something 159 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:39,520 different so it's exciting when you go to a new place but they still have so many options 160 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:45,760 some people use different spices and I could eat as much and drink as much as I wanted 161 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:52,920 and then have a great long ride home under the smoggy stars admittedly that smog was the 162 00:14:52,920 --> 00:15:00,320 bane of China and still is if that smog wasn't there and I still stayed in China for six 163 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:05,880 years I might have stayed longer in any case it certainly didn't dampen my spirits or 164 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:12,640 enthusiasm for Shao Cao and we went constantly multiple times a week for every single year 165 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:20,200 that I was in China and it was great the memories for me are fairly unbeatable go out to dinner 166 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:24,320 with all of your friends you don't have to worry about the expense you're enjoying food 167 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:31,160 that you love drinks that you love as late as you want to you collapse into bed you roll 168 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:36,600 out a bed at the crack of noon or 2 pm work for two hours and then get right back out there 169 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:45,720 for the next Shao Cao night now like I said I do love Shao Cao but it is now my least favorite 170 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:53,360 among my favorites of communal dining so I love Shao Cao I truly love it but it is time 171 00:15:53,360 --> 00:16:01,440 to move on to the other more flavorful side of communal dining popular in China hot pot 172 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:08,320 I didn't eat hot pot for a long time and I don't know if it's because it was soup or because 173 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:15,560 I was an idiot I have no idea why I was so hell bent on sticking with Shao Cao for so 174 00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:23,880 long but eventually I moved on to huogu and after I started eating it regularly I was like 175 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:30,680 oh right this is the malaf flavor that I love and I can eat it forever on every single 176 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:38,960 piece of food this is like the ideal situation so for people unfamiliar hot pot is a big 177 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:45,960 pretty metal bucket or pot with one or two soups inside maybe more but they're separated 178 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:52,440 so you have one different flavor in each section of the pot usually two sections and there 179 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:58,720 are different kinds there's like a tone katsu style and then there's just a seafood 180 00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:04,420 base and then my favorite the malaf the very spicy one and so you can choose which soup 181 00:17:04,420 --> 00:17:11,120 base you like and then you go up to again a huge array of different types of food more 182 00:17:11,120 --> 00:17:15,920 even then all the ones at Shao Cao I was talking about because it's difficult to barbecue 183 00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:22,880 something like skimmed tofu scan it will char up and crackle but in a hot pot it just 184 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:30,400 cooks like tofu and then you eat it and it's fantastic or a fried soy bean curd you can't 185 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:35,920 really grill that because it's multiple layers but it boils fantastic and tastes great 186 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:42,720 kelp you know very difficult to grill correctly but super easy to dump in a soup and let it 187 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:50,160 boil and acquire that flavor so they have everything that the Shao Cao has the barbecue plus 188 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:57,040 everything else that you can't really grill easily and it all tastes great because you get to 189 00:17:57,040 --> 00:18:03,120 choose which soup base you put it in so whatever your favorite flavor is there's a soup base of that 190 00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:10,080 and you get that flavor every time and when you dip too much so there's not enough flavor left 191 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:17,280 you can just ask them to add more flavor and the soup will slowly boil off and every hour half 192 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:22,560 hour you'll have to ask them to jia shui add a little more water into it so you can get more 193 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:31,680 soup back and oh jia nego waidau you know add that flavor in please and it's another really fun 194 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:37,280 you can choose all the foods you like you and your friends are sitting around a nice table the hot 195 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:44,480 pot restaurants are usually decorated pretty nice and you can just at your leisure cook your food 196 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:51,680 exactly how you like it in the hot pot enjoy it so you take it out and you put it in your one bowl 197 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:58,800 and then you have a bowl of condiments next to that and there can be 50 different condiments 198 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:08,960 in this huge palette that you get to choose from and mix together oyster sauce show you tahini there'll 199 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:17,040 be chopped chives chopped garlic cocktail sauce everything like there's all these different kinds of 200 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:24,480 sauces and condiments and chopped minced vegetables and you can mix your perfect sauce that you like 201 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:31,120 so after you cook a piece of meat like a slice of beef or whatever cook it in the soup of your 202 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:37,920 choosing for 20 seconds then you take it out let it drip off oil if you want to onto the first bowl 203 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:46,560 dip it in the condiment of your choice i really like the sesame paste with some oil mixed in and cilantro 204 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:53,200 and chives which is the most common thing but it just tastes fantastic the really spicy flavor especially 205 00:19:53,200 --> 00:20:04,560 of my malasoup with the modifying flavor of the sesame paste is fantastic and you just leisurely eat 206 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:10,160 exactly exactly the flavor you like with the exact condiments you like and you can get as much of 207 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:16,320 that as you want if you need more you get up and get more of course there's beer flowing everywhere 208 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:22,080 and my only problem is that i can't eat it outside which is what is so nice about chow kow 209 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:29,680 and you can find hot pot outside it's just far more rare than chow kow but the hot pot just offers 210 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:37,040 so much more variety and the flavor itself with the hot pot base is so strong that it's pretty easy 211 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:42,800 to overlook having to dine inside most of the time another great thing about hot pot is that there 212 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:50,000 are a bunch of them that are all you can eat so you go in you pay $12 or so and then you can eat 213 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:58,160 as much as you want and at my favorite one in mento go in Beijing you can also drink as much as you 214 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:07,520 want which is crazy so i went to that one for my birthday last year you can eat and drink as much 215 00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:15,360 as you want and they have seafood and every kind of meat and vegetable and just everything and then 216 00:21:15,360 --> 00:21:21,200 a huge case of beer right out front they also have regular drinks like sodas and waters and 217 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:28,000 everything that's also all you can drink but i chose the beer usually you can imagine how fun it 218 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:34,240 is just eating and eating and eating and drinking and drinking without any care about how much you're 219 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:40,720 ordering if you have a bottomless stomach these are the places you want to go i actually don't 220 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:47,920 stay longer than three two three hours or something because i actually do have a bottomless stomach 221 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:54,880 and i don't want to take advantage of the restaurant so after two hours i usually just leave 222 00:21:54,880 --> 00:22:01,280 because otherwise i'll just keep eating forever and i've actually entered eating contests and won 223 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:08,720 them informal unjudged eating contests but some of my Chinese friends would take their friends to 224 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:16,080 compete with me because they heard about the foreigner who can eat malah hot pot all night without 225 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:24,080 even slowing down and drinking like 20 beers and so they said well no that's look foreigners can't 226 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:29,920 eat that much of spicy food so i'll show up we can eat together and i'll show him how a Chinese 227 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:36,640 person really eats and every time that happened i got one more plate of steak and then one more plate 228 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:42,480 of spinach and then one more plate of pork and another plate of lotus root and another plate 229 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:47,680 and i just kept doing that and the so it started out that they were having fun and then they got 230 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:55,600 really confused and by the third hour they were horrified that i was still eating and i had some fun 231 00:22:55,600 --> 00:23:01,600 conversations with them about what was wrong with me and my body which is nothing it just appears 232 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:08,640 to have a temporal black hole inside it when i find food that i like another thing that's really 233 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:17,600 nice about hot pot particularly is that because of its more upscale cultural designation i'll say 234 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:25,440 a lot more business meetings and events are held around a big hot pot table then 235 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:34,480 shau kow or other street food things that i love but hot pot has a lot more memories in my head 236 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:39,040 by virtue of being perceived as more upscale so when something important would happen we would go 237 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:49,360 there when i joined the ownership of the school actually the first time nope that was hot pot yeah 238 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:55,440 we got hot pot when Chinese friends would introduce me to their friends we would usually go for 239 00:23:55,440 --> 00:24:01,200 hot pot when i celebrated opening my second school in shang du hot pot 240 00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:08,560 anniversaries or important dates hot pot paying some money to a mayor so that i could get a visa 241 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:16,480 a little bit faster we all went to hot pot big family gatherings that i was invited to hot pot is a good 242 00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:22,640 venue for those so i have so many significant memories just by virtue of that 243 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:30,640 vontid characteristic that hot pot has also i want to say hot pot pots look cool they do they're all 244 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:37,440 wavy where they separate the two hot pot bases it's just nice to be in a hot pot restaurant oh 245 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:45,440 and it smells amazing also for hot pot you get to rent private rooms if you're having an event 246 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:50,320 and that's not very common in a lot of chinese restaurants because everyone eats together 247 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:55,920 chinese people like to all be in the same room even 50 tables everyone screaming and talking 248 00:24:55,920 --> 00:25:02,800 it's just common to all be in the same room with no dividers in hot pot restaurants if there's a 249 00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:08,320 thing going on like a business get together or i don't know a family gathering or a celebration of 250 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:13,920 a wedding anniversary you can rent out a private room and it's a really interesting experience 251 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:23,360 because 90% of the time you're in any setting even if it is a wedding anniversary or some important 252 00:25:23,360 --> 00:25:30,480 event you're sharing it with a whole bunch of strangers in a big restaurant because chinese people 253 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:38,560 like grand halls they all like to gather together in public spaces so 10% of the time or less 254 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:44,240 you actually have the chance to observe one family unit just together and then their culture 255 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:50,480 kind of comes out like their special family culture that's just them oh of course okay the last 256 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:57,680 thing about hot pot that i'll say is that it also taught me how to cook chinese food now there are 257 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:05,440 tons of ways that you can cook chinese food and they're great but it turns out if you just buy hot pot 258 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:16,160 base whatever flavor you like hot pot base comes in a square cube of congealed hard oil and 259 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:21,760 spices all mixed together so that flavors in there so if you ever cook stir fry or you want to make 260 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:28,720 hot pot at home you just cut off a one inch by one inch or centimeter by centimeter cube of it 261 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:33,440 and throw it in there throwing in you know some more if you want more unless if you want less 262 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:40,560 but you just cut off a chunk of that block make some stir fry throw that in at the end boom you have 263 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:49,760 perfect mala whatever you're cooking so i make that all the time i go to the agent store i buy hot 264 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:56,720 pot base and then that will last for weeks of continuous a sliver off here throwing in the end 265 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:06,800 and now i have mala pork heart or mala steak or mala stir fry vegetables it's such a good flavor 266 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:13,040 it's a great flavor every time it smells great it's so easy to cook you just throw it in there 267 00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:19,520 and there are a few hot pot bases so you can have variety in this loophole for chinese cooking 268 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:24,880 i'll call it i certainly think of it that way it's just a much easier and faster way to cook 269 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:33,040 fantastic chinese food with the exact amount and balance of oil and spice that you like i recommend 270 00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:38,880 trying to cook with hot pot base as much as i recommend going to hot pot itself it's been such a 271 00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:46,080 revolutionary time saver in the kitchen for me oh wait i lied there's one more thing i can't say 272 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:52,640 hot pot correctly in mandarin apparently i say hua guo and every single chinese friend 273 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:58,880 everyone i've ever known in china says i'm saying it wrong and i don't know why they cannot explain 274 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:04,560 why i am saying it wrong but everybody agrees that hua guo is not correct i can't hear any 275 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:10,240 difference they can't really tell me what the difference is between how i say and how they say it 276 00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:16,000 but they swear that hot pot hua guo is not how you say hua guo it has to be a different 277 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:24,240 something and that's always kind of stuck in my crop but i got over it because i love hot pot 278 00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:31,120 which brings us over on to chuan chuan xian which is popular in sichuan i think maybe it's from 279 00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:37,440 sichuan i could look it up but you can too so i think it is okay fine i looked it up it's from cheng 280 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:44,880 do and i didn't eat it until i went to cheng do so for the first three years i was mostly just 281 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:54,480 eating shau khao and then i ate hua guo sometimes hot pot um but then as soon as i got to cheng do 282 00:28:54,480 --> 00:29:00,480 everyone way more popular eats chuan chuan xian and i was like oh what's going on here 283 00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:06,480 but i still didn't eat it for months because it was something i hadn't eaten before and they had hot 284 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:12,880 pot and shau khao and i love the shau khao still so like i like sitting outside eating the barbecue 285 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:19,600 all so that's really fun but i finally tried it and of course i loved it chuan chuan xian is the 286 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:26,880 cheng do version of hot pot where everything is on a skewer so you just take the skewers of whatever 287 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:31,600 you want it's very similar and then you put the skewer inside the hot pot and you pull it up by 288 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:36,800 the skewer and bite it off the skewer whatever you got and they have just as much variety of 289 00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:42,000 ingredients that is end of soup bases but there can be little chuan chuan xian and you can get 290 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:48,720 them to go where there can be giant chuan chuan xian that you can sit at with your friends and eat 291 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:55,360 it around the table like you would hot pot now you couple that with the fact that my favorite spice 292 00:29:55,360 --> 00:30:02,960 or my favorite Chinese flavor mala originates in situan province where chuan chuan xian is 293 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:10,800 located and now i have the perfect mala just so much more rich than other ones cheng cheng specifically 294 00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:18,240 is known for it's for having the best mala and i get the chong ching hot pot base when i can 295 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:25,840 any mala hot pot bases my favorite but i get the chong ching one one i can because it does seem to 296 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:32,400 have a little heavier flavor a little stronger savory nature with all of its spice and oil so it's 297 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:40,640 the pinnacle of my favorite flavor and biting off skewers is a little more fun for me so yeah it 298 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:48,720 kind of rocks it's also not as upscale as hot pot so there are a lot more mom and pop shops doing 299 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:54,640 it which i really like trying different mom and pop shops that do their own chuan chuan xian and 300 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:59,440 chuan chuan xian still has a whole bunch of those condiments that you can get like the sesame paste 301 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:05,200 and the chili oil and the chopped minced garlic and all that stuff so if you're in situan chuan 302 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:10,160 chuan chian is definitely something you should try and then the last thing i didn't try that i didn't 303 00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:16,160 even really notice until i was in the south of china so i'm not sure i have to go back to the north 304 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:22,880 and central like cheng du because i'm not sure if it was popular there or only popular in the south 305 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:29,280 because i don't know how i didn't notice it for basically six years when i went back to visit 306 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:41,680 china last year i saw jatchuan jatchuan fried skewers in the south anyway refers to mini skewers 307 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:49,760 that are fried basically deep fried so instead of one regular sized barbecue skewer like you're 308 00:31:49,760 --> 00:32:01,200 thinking of with a strip of beef on it they have 20 mini skewers with 120th of that piece of beef on each one 309 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:06,480 and i thought i wouldn't like it because it was deep fried but having slivers of meat 310 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:14,960 makes it so easy to cook them evenly and each bundle of 20 skewers sometimes 30 skewers one bundle 311 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:23,600 is five quay so like 60 cents and then they deep fry all 30 at the same time still in the bundle 312 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:31,840 and then give that to you so rather than getting a big hunk of beef you get 30 tiny bites of beef 313 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:40,560 and that is so much fun and it tastes great deep fried which i really didn't expect 314 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:45,520 they deep fried and then put a bunch of the spice mixture on it just like they do with chow kow 315 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:50,080 and it just comes out perfect and you can choose exactly how much you want them to fry it 316 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:56,640 i like my meat drier pretty dry actually so i have them put it in there for an extra 40 seconds 317 00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:00,560 and when they take it out according to my preference it basically just tastes like 30 bites of 318 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:08,320 beef jerky oh that's the other main advantage of this method of chow kow kow specifically over all 319 00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:14,880 of these other ones shau kow the barbecue it can take up to 15 20 minutes for the inoki mushrooms to 320 00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:23,120 finish in hot pot or tron tron seang it takes maybe two minutes for mushrooms to finish so 321 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:28,800 everything cooks much faster and much more evenly because it's in you know a constant temperature 322 00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:38,000 within that bowl of soup rather than grilling at uneven temperatures so once i was finally enlightened 323 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:44,000 with the revelation that was jatchewan you know that became my new favorite thing for a while 324 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:51,680 because it's great it's on a skewer you don't have to mess with chopsticks or the soup dripping off 325 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:57,200 whatever you're holding with the chopsticks it's a lot more you know visceral because you're 326 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:04,160 biting off a skewer and all and before i move on to the next favorite food another reason 327 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:10,320 jatchewan sticks in my mind so well is because i had an insane run of good luck while i went to my first 328 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:18,240 jatchewan place that i fell in love with i bought a paps blue ribbon from a beer store or a convenience store 329 00:34:18,240 --> 00:34:25,760 just short walk away a few minutes and it had a promotion going on so if you were lucky and you pulled 330 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:32,080 off the pull tab it would have a little message on the underside and it would say thanks for playing 331 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:41,200 or your next land die paps blue ribbon is one quay 16 cents and these are 600 milliliter beers 332 00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:48,880 and the first one i got one quay for my next beer and i was like oh wow and i went back and 333 00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:56,320 pulled that and then i had two beers with winning tabs your next beers one quay 334 00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:06,640 and over the i don't know three weeks maybe i was there probably one 20 to 30 beers 335 00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:14,480 and i was buying a lot of beers but this was still at least every other beer was your next beer is one 336 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:20,400 quay or 16 cents and it just kept happening and sometimes i would get them five in a row and i would 337 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:25,680 just pay one quay for each beer and the beers were normally six quay for one beer 338 00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:32,720 i won so much that i started feeling bad for the store i was buying them at you know not like real bad 339 00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:38,800 that i would stop buying them but i was just like oh wow this is i'm just lucky as heck 340 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:45,200 and i would always chew there's a huge like cooler of them and i would choose them at random i 341 00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:50,720 wasn't choosing them straight down the line so they weren't all winners um but a lot of mind were 342 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:58,880 so having yeah thirty free beers might have added to the charm of jachwan but jachwan deserves its own 343 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:08,800 place in the panopoli of divine skewer foods so there's another food that i love called jajiao or 344 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:16,640 jienjiao or zajiao depending on the pronunciation or dialect you're coming from and that's 345 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:24,960 american pot stickers that are of course from china and in china they much more just boil the jiauzha 346 00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:30,800 the dumplings and or steam them and then you eat them like that it's very rare to fry them in oil 347 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:38,560 so they have the crispy crispy or edges and noodle wrappings but i really like it like that's always 348 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:45,840 trying to find a jienjiao place that i can stop into and that's one of the prettiest foods i 349 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:52,800 came across um because i wanted this one restaurant that i found that had jianjiao because i was in a 350 00:36:52,800 --> 00:37:02,720 new town and when they served it they serve the jianjiao you get about 20 of them but they leave in 351 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:11,680 some like carbohydrates soup in it when they're frying it so as it fries down it's connected by a 352 00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:22,640 web like a spider web pattern of noodle basically because there's so much starch in the liquid 353 00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:31,280 that they pour into the pan so it's all one connected piece of 20 jianjiao or those pot stickers 354 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:39,360 and they're crispy and crunchy and the inside is moist and you get to eat them and snap off the 355 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:48,240 spider web connecting each jianjiao to all of the other ones which is a flavorful crispy noodle wrapping 356 00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:54,800 snack it's very fun to eat like that that's very rare i've only seen it in one restaurant 357 00:37:54,800 --> 00:38:03,520 but i love jianjiao and jiauzha and what this restaurant fried looked like a giant pot sticker snowflake 358 00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:11,520 the pattern was so intricate but jianjiao are one of my favorite foods because when i realized i wanted to 359 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:18,240 start investing all of my money so that i could live off the savings i decided to save money for 360 00:38:18,240 --> 00:38:24,240 a little while for like several months also i just ate out every single day so i didn't want to get 361 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:30,240 out of practice so badly with cooking for myself and i decided that a good place to start was 362 00:38:30,240 --> 00:38:37,520 something i never made before jiauzha or pot stickers so i went out and bought the wrappings like three or 363 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:43,600 four hundred of those and then i went to my local market and bought all of the vegetables i like 364 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:52,560 garlic spinach carrot onion and i chopped up a whole bunch got a huge mixing bowl mixed that all in 365 00:38:53,600 --> 00:39:01,040 got some pork mixed that all up with the vegetables minced pork and then i added some soy sauce and some 366 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:07,600 spices and i mixed that all up and i didn't let it sit i think i should let it sit so that the 367 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:14,000 flavor gets more into everything and then i can add more flavor but either way i had this whole bowl 368 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:21,520 and then i would just spend two hours or something listening to a podcast or watching a movie or 369 00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:26,240 usually was listening to a podcast so i could look at my hands while i was doing it and you take a little 370 00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:32,080 finger full of the stuffing you put it in one of the wrappings you close the wrappings up 371 00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:37,040 that's a pot sticker put that in the completed bowl just another mixing bowl on the side 372 00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:43,040 and that's what i did it and i made three four hundred of them at a time and i like to eat 373 00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:51,280 20 of them in one sitting 15 to 20 so that's at least 20 meals so it's a good couple weeks of food 374 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:59,200 and sometimes i would just eat jianjiao because i only eat once a day anyway so when it was dinner time 375 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:04,240 i would pull out 20 or sometimes 40 if i was like really hungry that day or i went on a huge 376 00:40:04,240 --> 00:40:11,200 jog and i would cook up some vegetables and then fry up some jialda and i made them and i had this 377 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:16,240 huge stockpile and friends would come over sometimes i'd cook them for them oh and like i said i 378 00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:23,440 originally started this to save money and i spent maybe ten dollars on those four hundred jialda 379 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:32,080 yeah i would be surprised if it was more than ten but it there's no way it was more than 15 380 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:38,800 because two pounds of ground pork most expensive most most would be five dollars and that's like a 381 00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:44,240 crazy and then all of the rest of the vegetables easily five dollars like you can get shopping bags 382 00:40:44,240 --> 00:40:52,720 full of spinach multiple shopping bags for a dollar or two they're very cheap so yeah ten bucks 383 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:58,480 four hundred jialda i had food for two weeks with that ten dollars and i liked making the food 384 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:04,960 and it tastes great i made a lot of the thousands of them over the months that i got back 385 00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:11,280 into cooking and it wasn't the same thing i always cooked every day but i pretty much the rest 386 00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:17,600 of the time i lived in china i always had some jialda in the freezer from when i made the most 387 00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:21,280 yeah so i'd make four hundred put in the freezer and just take out 20 or whatever each day 388 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:29,200 that i want to eat so if you do want to save money you can make four hundred jialda or pot stickers 389 00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:36,240 and then cook them each day and over two weeks you'll have spent ten dollars on food 390 00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:43,440 and save the rest of your food budget it's a good easy way delicious way to save money 391 00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:52,560 and to do this really traditional chinese activity like you'll see them in jialda shops you'll 392 00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,800 see the workers like making them just like how i described making them they make a huge bowl of 393 00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:01,840 stuffing put it inside the wrapper close up the wrapper lid so it looks like a pot sticker put it 394 00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:05,440 down do the next one dumpling dumpling dumpling until they have piles of dumplings 395 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:10,640 so you can do that yourself and it's really it's a cool way to become part of the culture i think 396 00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:17,280 and it's food so you get to eat it after and i know i mentioned all you can eat bafay's before 397 00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:24,240 but they're so great in asia that i think they bear repeating a little but there are so many places in 398 00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:33,040 china and so much food production in china that there are all you can eat bafay's all over the place 399 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:41,280 so there's hot pot bafay everywhere there's sushi bafays in tons of places so you pay a hundred 400 00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:48,000 quai which is like i said like twelve thirteen dollars something like that and you can just sit 401 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:54,400 in there for two hours and all you can eat sushi and sashimi so when you're in a city if you're 402 00:42:54,400 --> 00:43:00,480 visiting china after you get full of the local food or whatever and you're like oh what should i 403 00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:07,680 do next find the food that you liked the most whether it was hot pot or shau kow or whatever it was 404 00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:12,000 and look for an all you can eat version of that or if you just walked all you can eat sushi look for 405 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:20,000 an all you can eat version of that and gorge yourself just go have some fun there are many all you can 406 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:26,880 eat personal hot pot places regular hot pot cha cha cha all over the place and it's worth it and 407 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:32,080 it's a really fun experience you can't really get that experience for such a great price point in 408 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:38,000 most other countries with the best kind of hot pot like they have all you can eat bafays in other 409 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:47,840 countries but it doesn't have the same very strong just exquisite flavors that Chinese hot pot has 410 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:52,080 so i highly encourage you to go check out the all you can eat bafays in china 411 00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:57,600 well this episode's already getting kind of long as well so i'm going to wind down here 412 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:04,000 remind you that you can get over to china if you want to if these foods sound great and boy are they 413 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:12,400 great and then i'll see you in installment number three because i still have a lot of food of 414 00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:19,520 favorite foods to talk about all of these foods i'm not joking where my favorite food for some period 415 00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:26,400 of time all i lived in china and it's really difficult to choose one or even ten because i would be 416 00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:31,840 like oh this is the best thing ever and i love this and then i would discover something new that i 417 00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:39,440 loved and think oh wait this is the best thing ever i love this so i got more foods to talk about and 418 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:48,000 we will talk about them in my favorite chinese foods three email me at bit of a rambler at gmail.com 419 00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:50,800 and I will talk to you soon. 420 00:44:50,800 --> 00:45:04,920 [ as you can see in the background, the car has a lot of fun, it doesn't matter which one car is the most expensive one, the next car will have plenty of fun]