The Chuancais Museum: Visit and Learn about Traditional Sichuan Cuisine

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If there is one reason to visit the Sichuan province, it’s for the food. Well, and the pandas, but that’s a blog post for a different day. THIS post, is all about Sichuan cuisine. Let me tell y’all right now. Sichuan cuisine is the BEST IN THE WORLD. I will yell it from the mountain tops – IT IS TOP TIER. And thankfully, you can learn all about Sichuan cuisine from master chefs yourself! Introducinggg…*drum roll*…the Chuancais Museum! It is the world’s FIRST regional cuisine museum, and even hosts its cooking school!

Honestly, it was one of my favorite things to do in Chengdu, and I hiiighly recommend visiting. One, you get to learn stuff about food. Cute. Two, you get to EAT food. CUTE. Three, you get to TAKE FOOD HOME WITH YOU. CUUUTE.

I’m in.

If you want to learn more about this awesome museum, keep reading! You won’t regret it! (Also, if you are an American and don’t have a Chinese visa, read this post to see how to get one!)

The Chuancais Museum: How to Get There

Do yourself a favor when you get to China. STAY SOMEWHERE CLOSE TO THE SUBWAY. It will make your life sooo much easier while visiting. That said, public transportation might not be in your favor for the Chuancais Museum.

It’s in the middle of literally freaking nowhere in a small suburb outside of Chengdu named Pidu District. It’s about an hour’s drive from Chengdu’s city center. So you can just imagine how long public transport would take. BUT, it’s not impossible if you are completely averse to taxis. I just, wouldn’t recommend it. In any case, here’s how to get to the Chuancais Museum.

Address:

No.8 Ronghua North Street, Gucheng Town, Pidu District, Chengdu, Sichuan

By Public Tran:

So you CANNN technically get to the museum via public transit, but it takes forever and requires a couple of transfers.

Depending on where you are, getting to the Chuancais Museum will take about 2 to 2.5 hours. Get yourself to Xipu Station by whichever subway is closest to you! It is the easiest jump off point. Then you will need to take bus No.P22 to the museum.

By Taxi:

The rideshare equivalent to Uber/Lyft in China is called Didi. The app requires a Chinese phone number to access, so unless you have that, you can’t fully use it. However, if you’re staying at a hotel, just ask the front desk. My hotel would just call taxi’s for us using Didi and type in our destination. Then we would pay when we reached the destination.

It is also pretty easy to step outside and flag down a taxi. If you don’t speak Mandarin, make sure to have the address pulled up (in Chinese characters!). The cost will be approximately 100RMB (~$14 USD), but the journey is about an hour. So quite the steal! That said, it is a bit harder to get a taxi on the way back. There aren’t many driving around. You will either have to catch the public transport back (it’s longg), or maybe ask if someone at the museum can call you a taxi!

The Chuancais Museum: Tickets

This was actually the hardest bit of information to find, since the official website does not offer the help usually provided.

• Hours: 09:00~18:00, most days
• Price: 60RMB/pp (~$8USD) or 360RMB/pp to add on the cooking class (~$50USD). Trust me, you’ll want to do the cooking class to get the full experience
• Time: You’ll spend at least half a day here, especially if you take the cooking class. Plan to arrive either at 9:30 or 13:30 for the best experience.

So being my unprepared self, I just popped on over to the museum (I think I arrived at around ~11am?) and bought tickets. They do not take card, so make sure you have enough cash for everyone in your party. I guess it is a bit unusual for foreigners to come unaccompanied by a group or tour, but everyone was super helpful and accommodating.

Apparentlyyyy, when you purchase a cooking class, you get an included English guide to walk you through the museum (if you don’t speak Mandarin). You also are supposed to be on a sort of ‘cooking class’ schedule, which starts at either 9:50am or 13:50pm (1:50pm). I showed up…kind of in the middle. Oops. So my tour ended up being a tad rushed, but it was still great! So I’m sure if you arrive at those times, it would be even better!

The Chuancais Museum: The Tour

Aight so once you pay at the front, get ready for some fun!

Snacks on snacks on snacks!

The tour typically starts with a traditional snack hour! You will be presented Sichuan stuffed pancakes, northern Sichuan jelly, Zhong dumplings, Sichuan pickles (yummm), tofu pudding, golden thread noodles…Basically a ton of stuff.

Unfortunately for me and my late-ness, we had to skip this bit. *cry emoji*

Learnin’ History and Stuff

The next part is where the guide really comes in handy. You walk through a museum of Sichuan cuisine, walking you through the very beginnings of agriculture in the region to modern-day. That said, the plaques have English, but it’s just more involved to have someone explain everything.I won’t share all the goodies I learned (gotta leave something for your own trip, eh?). And also, I forgot a lot of them. But some of the cool tidbits that stuck with me were:

• Sichuan “spice” originated from ginger! The Sichuan chilis that we know and love today weren’t introduced until a while later from trade!
• Sichuan cuisine and food culture is so engrained in the region that people used to get MARRIED at their favorite restaurants! The restaurant owners literally signed and officiated the marriage documents!
• You can buy a bowl used by an emperor. Really, it’s for sale. Yes, it was out of my price range.

Talk about Famous!

Chengdu is actually a City of Gastronomy! It is a globally recognized UNESCO title. To qualify for this award, the city has to be characterized by its food, with numerous restaurants and chefs that follow traditional culinary practices that have preceded industrial/technological advancements. Also, the city must respect the environment and promote sustainable local product usage. The city must also hold accessible gastronomic festivals in the city, and promote nutritional health in educational institutions, which includes biodiversity conservation programs in cooking schools! Only 34 cities IN THE WORLD have this title – Chengdu is one of them.

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Then you also see how a traditional Sichuan kitchen was set up back in the day! It’s all super insightful!

Helpin’ on the Farm

Next you are led to this open area with a bunch of buckets. As it turns out, they STILL churn soy sauce and chili paste BY HAND. It’s truly unbelievable. I haven’t done anything by hand since I had to build one of those little popsicle stick California missions in elementary school.

Are any of my Southern California brethren having flashbacks right now?

Anyways, you’ll get to try your hand at churning chili paste, and they’ll give you a rundown on some of the basic ingredients! I also learned that they let chili paste ferment for at least one year, and up to four years. You can tell how old the chili paste is based on the color. Younger chili paste is BRIGHT red and spicier, like mouth on FIRE hot. More mature chili paste is a deeper red, and results in a more robust flavor. The spice level numbs your tongue, but has less of a fire-kick. Honestly one of the most magical flavors in the world.

~ohh soy sauce galoreee~

In addition, you learn about Sichuan region soy sauce – again, better than any other soy sauce you will EVER taste. You’ll even get to try some soy sauce straight from the pot!

Y’all. When I tell you that I would give my firstborn child for an unlimited amount of that fresh soy sauce – I AM NOT JOKING.

While we were touring around, there was a group of school kids there as well on a field trip. As foreigners, naturally, we stuck out like a sore thumb. Most of the younger kids would just shy away and wave from a distance. But the older kids would randomly shout English words at us like “cool! Hello! AWE-SOME!” at us. Not gonna lie, their impressions were pretty spot on.

We also witnessed a certified Sichuan chef (they have VERY rigorous certification) chop the famed golden noodle. The noodles are so thin that they can be threaded through a needle. And she did it BLINDFOLDED.

Pray to the Kitchen God

There is a Shrine to the Kitchen God at the Chuancais Museum. Fitting. I could go on forever about the Chinese Kitchen God, but in the MOST BASIC explanation: Pray for a bountiful year in the kitchen.

The guide will lead you to the shrine and explain the tradition behind it. Of course, with all of the school kids there, there was a huge line with all of them patiently waiting to enter and exit.

Our guide was like: “Oh, don’t worry, we’ll just cut them.”

…cut them???

“You mean,” I looked at the guide, then back to the sweet faces of the innocent children. “We’re going to go ahead of them?”

“Yup.” He waved off my concern, already headed to the entrance. I’m assumed what he was saying was ‘excuse us so so sorry’ in Chinese as he barged in front of children.

“No, it’s okay, I can wait.”

“I insist.” He insisted, gesturing me inside.

To those school children, I offer my deepest apologies.

But it was awesome learning about the Kitchen God! And, you got to wear traditional clothes and stuff as the guide talked more about it.

If you can’t handle the heat

Then it was time to cook. Since we came at a weird in-between time, we were the only ones in the kitchen. The kids were out in a lobby area folding dumplings…or something similar that didn’t require fire.

So, after you thoroughly wash your hands, you will…well, be instructed on how to cook a few traditional Sichuan dishes. The dishes we cooked were: panda steamed dumpling (not using actual panda, its red bean), Kung Pao chicken, and Mapo Tofu! Though I’ve heard they also sometimes teach pumpkin steamed dumplings, daqian dry-braised fish, and boiled beef in chili sauce. I’m not sure what determines your cooking menu but YOOOO. You haven’t had Kung Pao chicken until you’ve had SICHUAN Kung Pao chicken!! And I don’t even like tofu, but I could eat Mapo Tofu every day of my liffeeee!! If you have any dietary restrictions, make sure to bring that up when you get your tickets.

Since you’re actively cooking, you don’t really get to take pictures or anything with your phone. But they do take pictures for you! I…thought they would send them to me later or something…but they didn’t. So maybe just ask them if they could take pictures with your phone! Then at the end, you get a certificate as a (novice) Sichuan chef and get to shake hands with one of the hot shot chefs at the museum!

Chow Downnn

Then, best of all, you get to eat everything! Since our guide was around the same age, mid-twenties, we talked a lot about Chinese pop culture. It was fun. They’ll send you home with recipes of everything you’ve cooked, so make sure to stock up on supplies before leaving! Which brings me to…..

Take a little something home!

I love a good gift shop. But even if you don’t, you can’t NOT buy something to take home with you. Not after tasting all of that great food! I ended up buying two bottles of Sichuan soy sauce, three containers of chili paste, and a bag of panda poop tea. Yeah, the tea is fertilized with panda poop. IT’S GOOD OKAY!??!?

There are also other food items like pickles and whatnot, but I only had so much room in my checked bag. And I had filled most of the space with shoes I had bought in Beijing. Sorry not sorry.

The Chuancais Museum: Conclusion

It was an incredible day. Again, getting home is a bit annoying. We ended up taking the bus back to Xipu Station, then the subway back to town. It took about 2.5 hours. If I could go back, I would have just asked the front desk to call a taxi on Didi, but alas. Now you have the knowledge to.

Even though the museum is out of the way, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend going. It WILL be a highlight of your time in Chengdu!

And and anddd. Before you go visit….if you could PLEASEEE bring me back some soy sauce and chili paste, I would literally pay you back. Please and thank you!!

So? What do you think? Would you want to go?

Let me know in the comments below! What are your favorite Sichuan dishes?

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