A Taste of Chongqing Hot Pot: SIN-CKG on Silkair in Y

[yflyer]

Earlier this year I spent just under 24 hours in Chongqing, China.

It was very hazy the day I was there, and I only managed to have one good meal during my short stay. However, the little scenery I could make out through the haze was stunning, and the one meal I had was spectacular. I was keen to return.

The opportunity to go back there arose earlier this month. This time, I would fly direct from Singapore via Silkair and spend several days there. Ample time to discover more about what this amazing city had to offer. Or at least more time than usual, given this was a business trip!

The airport code for Chongqing is CKG. I wonder how many folks have mixed this up with bookings to Jakarta (CGK) by mistake.

Not as bad as this couple of course. If this happened to me, apart from compensation, I would ask for the additional air miles credit

Next stop: Chongqing!

[yflyer]

My Silkair flight was scheduled to depart from Changi Airport T2.



This flight would be on one of Silkair's A320's.



We were parked alongside one of their smaller A319's.



Flight time today would be around 4 hours. To be very frank, I was not looking forward to such a long flight on an A320, especially one without proper IFE.

On this route, Silkair probably gets away with it because they operate one of the few (if not the only) direct flights to Chongqing. But this does nothing for customers' perceptions of this airline, especially since they portray themselves as a full service airline, and no less than SIA's regional arm.

I would happily fly Silkair to a holiday destination, but as a carrier for business travel, they are close to the bottom of my list.

[yflyer]

Gripes about the equipment aside, I was pleasantly surprised by how new the plane was. The Silkair cabin crew were great as well, cheerful and spontaneous, if just a little less poised than their colleagues on SQ.

Business class was configured in rows of 2x2, in spanking new leather seats. The seats looked really plush and comfortable.



That said, this was clearly a shorthaul business class configuration. I can't imagine any J class passenger being happy about this seat for a 4 hour flight.

The Y cabin was configured in conventional 3x3 layout, which on an A320, is a comfortable configuration, which I find a little less claustrophobic than a 737.



Y cabin ambience was clean, bright and airy. Seat pitch was average -- no more and no less that what you would expect on an A320.

[yflyer]

I was treated to great aerial views of the Singapore coastline and Changi Airport after takeoff.



Great views of the East Coast of Singapore, right up to Marina Bay and beyond.



We also had a good view of Changi Airport from the air as we circled around to set course for Chongqing.

Terminals 2 and 3 are clearly visible in the picture, and if you look very closely through the clouds, you can just about make out the Changi Airport control tower as well.



Here is a view of the North of Singapore and parts of Malaysia (foreground), including the Causeway linking Singapore and Johor in Malaysia.

[yflyer]

After take-off, the cabin crew came round with beverages.



A hot meal was also served. There weren't any printed menus, but I do recall that I had a choice of two mains. I chose spicy fish with bee hoon.



This was fine, even tasty, but not particularly memorable.



Coffee and tea was served, with powdered creamer in a packet. Yuck.

I wish Silkair would resolve its identity crisis and decide whether it was a premium full service airline, like SQ, or a budget carrier. If I paid budget carrier prices I would be delighted at what Silkair had to offer: New planes, fantastic cabin crew, and a hot meal! But on this 4+ hour sector, as a full service airline, they offer a bare-bones hard product that is just underwhelming.

And to rub salt into the wound, for IFE, they screen silent features on shared drop down video screens, because the seats on their planes have no headphone audio. What were they thinking when they procured aircraft without headphone sockets to fly 4 hour routes?

[yflyer]

The flight was not completely full, so I at least had an empty seat next to me.



We are soon approaching Chongqing.

If you are on a daytime flight into Chongqing, I would urge you to select a window seat if possible. The approach into Chongqing is very scenic.

First you see dramatic hills, valleys and an abundance of green.





Then the unmistakable signs of modern infrastructure appear...



And then the entire metropolis is upon you, a cross between Manhattan, Hong Kong and Gotham City...









We landed on schedule in Chongqing. A large and very busy airport.

[yflyer]

This time round, I managed to see quite a bit (if only from the window of a taxi), and eat quite a lot...



I was blown away by what I saw in Chongqing.

It is a huge, sprawling and prosperous city set amid rolling hills. The city is a heady mix of modernity and tradition, with stunning views of the Jialing and Yangtze river as a backdrop. There is also so much history here. Chongqing served as the wartime capital for Chiang Kai Shek in WW2, and further back in history had flourished during many Chinese dynasties, including the Ming and Qing dynasties.

I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was right smack in the middle of the shopping district, which in many ways compares very favourably with Orchard Road or Causeway Bay in Hong Kong.

And to top it all off, things were a lot cheaper than in Singapore, particularly the food. More than one elaborate dinner for 10 at a fine Chinese restaurant cost us less than SGD 200-250, and often less.

One such meal was at a restaurant in the city, by the river.



This restaurant served traditional/typical Chongqing cuisine...



Although I could not say the same about the establishment next door...



Yes, Starbucks is everywhere...

[yflyer]

Whether in fine dining restaurants, casual outlets, or company cafeterias, the food was superb. The local cuisine is very spicy, with many dishes splashed with chilli oil and the local sichuan spicy (and numbing) hua jiao peppers.





One dish which I had not tried before was small quail/bird eggs done as pei tan or century eggs, with sesame and chilli oil. Absolutely delicious, although it may be very unusual to Western tastebuds.

[yflyer]

On other occasions, we also had spicy noodles...



And spicy dumplings...

[yflyer]

I didn't just spend my week in Chongqing eating, of course. There was work to be done, and on that front, it was a very productive week.

Although we had hired a vehicle to take us from the hotel to the client's office each day, we also tried out the taxis. They drive very aggressively along the winding, hilly roads in Chongqing. This driver also seemed to think that precautions against robbery were also necessary.



For lunch, we ate at our client's cafeteria, which offered delicious local home-style cuisine, with a different selection of lipsmacking, invariably spicy, dishes each day.



For home-style, read that as dishes which would be considered fairly exotic in other parts of the world. For example, I could not persuade any of my foreign colleagues to try that local delicacy on the lower left of the tray (猪耳朵, Zhu Er Duo)...

I was working with a great client that week. Apart from working hard, they also played hard. Tucked in the corner of their auditorium was this competition-grade table tennis table. I wish we had the time to roll it out for a game or two.

[yflyer]

The most memorable meal by far was traditional Chongqing Hot Pot (火锅) at a riverside restaurant an hour's drive out of Chongqing.

This was set amidst stunning scenery, by the river (either the Yangtze or Jialing, or one of its tributaries...).





The tables and seating for this restaurant were spread out along the hillside, some in gazebos overlooking the river.





The traditional Hot Pot is, of course, placed on a stove set in the middle of the table.

[yflyer]

This restaurant specialised in fish and seafood. Large chunks of fresh fish were dropped into the hot chilli oil to cook.



Different varieties of fish were used, usually whole, in that fish heads, eggs etc all went into the pot as well.



These were served with various side dishes, including batter-fried pork ribs, vegetables and fish head in clear broth.



The fish was tender, spicy and absolutely delicious.

You also needed copious amounts of herbal tea and local Chongqing beer to wash it all down...with the beer drunk directly from the bottle, in accordance with local tradition (or so they tell me...).

[yflyer]

We rounded off dinner with hand pulled noodles, which start off like this...



The pieces of dough are then pulled individually by hand into strips...





Then dropped into the spicy hot pot to cook...



These were delicious, and not easy to find, even in Chongqing.



It looked really easy to pull the noodles, the way the waitress/chef did it, but I am sure that if any one of us tried, the strips of dough would end up in shreds or misshapened lumps.

Although we were quite full from the earlier dishes, the noodles were so good that we ordered a second helping and were treated to a repeat performance...

[yflyer]

And that sums up my trip to Chongqing.

I don't have anything new to add about my return leg that hasn't been covered to some extent in other TR's, as my return was via Air China from Chongqing to Shanghai, connecting to an SQ red-eye from PVG to SIN.

Looking forward to heading back to Chongqing again some time soon! In the mean time, if anyone has good hot pot dining recommendations in Singapore, do send them across!

Thanks for reading!

[djjlo]

Wow what a wonderful trip report, the food looks so interesting and spicy too,

Thanks for posting the report