What to eat this month
Chilli has no season in Chengdu — hotpot, mapo tofu and dan dan noodles are on every month of the year — so the calendar shows in the sides and the sweets: toon shoots and fish-mint for a few weeks in March and April, bingfen and cold jelly noodles from May to September, Qingcheng bacon and ginkgo chicken soup from October, then the winter of mutton soup and sweet rice-wine bowls from November to February, with the whole city queuing for mutton soup on the winter solstice. The month is set by today's date in Beijing time; the dishes under each month come from the must-eat list, where each one says where to get it.
Twelve monthsChina time today: Oct
Deep winter: milky mutton soup and sweet rice-wine bowls with egg for breakfast, hotpot at its peak, trotter soup after midnight; Qingcheng bacon on the mountain tables. Spring Festival, when it falls late in the month, brings the nine-bowl steamed banquet and leaf-wrapped ye'er ba.
Spring Festival month most years: ye'er ba and the nine-bowl banquet are the New Year food; mutton soup and laozao are in their last month, the Qingcheng bacon still on; hotpot still the winter answer.
The first shoots: toon-shoot omelette and cold-dressed fish-mint appear as 'seasonal specials' on home-style menus — a few weeks only. The winter soups are gone from the street; Qingcheng's ginkgo chicken and bacon see out their last month.
Still spring-greens season, and the end of it — toon is only eaten young, and by May it is gone. Qingming falls early in the month but no dish on this list is tied to it; the rest is the fixed must-eats.
Summer starts on the street: bingfen windows open, lianggao comes out cold, jelly noodles and cold garlic pork move to the front of the table; the spring shoots are over. No zongzi entry here for the Dragon Boat run-up — Chengdu's list does not have one.
Summer eating: a bowl of bingfen to put out the hotpot fire, liangfen and lianggao from the windows, garlic pork slices as the cold opener. Dragon Boat falls in June most years, but nothing on this list is tied to it.
Peak heat: the cold line — bingfen, liangfen, lianggao, garlic pork — is the season; hotpot and skewers carry on regardless, and cold-pot skewers or bobo ji are the gentler way in.
Still summer food: bingfen on every corner, jelly noodles, cold garlic pork; the sweet-snack line stays chilli-free. Nothing starts or ends this month — eat the fixed must-eats.
Last month of street bingfen (hotpot houses keep it all year); the summer-only wonton shops stop making it. Mid-Autumn usually falls in September, but there is no mooncake entry on Chengdu's list.
The turn: Qingcheng Mountain's four specialties come back — ginkgo chicken soup, smoked farmhouse bacon, the mountain's own tea and kiwi wine — as the bacon is an autumn-winter product; bingfen retreats to the hotpot houses.
Winter opens: Jianyang mutton soup returns, laozao and tremella are back on the breakfast counters, hotpot heads into its peak, and trotter soup and qiaojiao beef are the warm bowls; Qingcheng bacon at its best.
The winter solstice (around 21-22 December) is the city's mutton-soup day — expect a scrum at the soup houses; laozao with egg for breakfast, hotpot every night, Qingcheng bacon and chicken soup on the mountain.
Each month lists only what is in season; the year-round essentials (Chuanchuan (skewer hotpot) · Dan dan noodles · Fuqi feipian ('husband-and-wife' sliced beef) · Long wontons (chaoshou) · Mapo tofu · Twice-cooked pork (huiguorou) · Zhong dumplings (sweet chilli-oil dumplings)) count in any month. A peak is not an exclusivity rule — availability varies by shop.