Recently, I am doing an assignment concerning the lifestyle of people in Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan province in western China), in the past week, my partners and I shuttled between downtown and the suburb of the city with heavy cameras, shooting ordinary citizen’s life, what impressed me most is their affection toward“fly restaurants”, actually, this is a literal translation according to its meaning in Chinese, we’d better call it greasy spoon, but I prefer the former, as it vividly reflects Chinese flavor. Even some Chinese out of Chengdu hardly know the equal word “苍蝇馆子”.

"fly restaurants” do not refer to places with flies circling around, historically, unhygienic environment may account for this name, but this is not the concern of contemporary“fly restaurants” anymore, currently they are known as restaurants with simple decoration and relative cheap price, of course, famous ones are featured by its delicious dishes. “fly restaurants” covers both staples and local snacks, when we were shooting, we saw people patiently waiting in line to buy snacks, the saying that “the customer is king” seems cannot be adapted to Chengdu, the seller is dominant, popular snakes are sold in limited period, which usually last 2 hours separately in the morning and afternoon. We intended to buy “guokui” (one of the famous snacks in Chengdu) by the way, but we just unexpectedly missed the period.

You might assume that this kind of restaurant only suits ordinary people, the affluent and people of high social status will not go for it, however, that’s not the truth, which makes this city unique. It is very common in Chengdu that people who drive luxury cars search for “fly restaurants” in deep alley. Usually, popular“fly restaurants” are very crowded during rush hour, restaurateurs have to arrange tables in passage outside, gusts have no complains, on the contrary they enjoy this atmosphere and take it for granted. I, as a stranger, really feel it fresh, that’s really a distinct scenery of this city. After finishing shooting in“fly restaurants”, my team behaved like native people, eating outside the restaurant, engaged in delicious dishes that the restaurateur recommended.

It seems they emphasize the taste of the food regardless of rough environment, that’s exactly the eating style of people in Chengdu. Chengdu was entitled to be “world gourmet capital” in 2010, and“fly restaurants” plays an increasingly significant part in its food culture, more and more tourists who come to Chengdu begin to abandon luxury dining rooms, embracing “fly restaurants” , and I think that is a wise choice as it can help them understand an authentic Chengdu.

After this experience, I wonder how people from different places and cultural settings show their affections in food, is it universal or a cultural difference?