What to eat this month

Deep winter: hotpot on its home ground, and the cured-pork season in full swing — cured belly with garlic shoots and cured-rib soup at the home-style and farm restaurants, the balconies still hung with sausage. Spring Festival can fall at the end of the month, and by our list the cured-meat season runs up to it. On the rooftop bars, check the fog first: the skyline is often hidden on winter nights.

Spring Festival usually falls here, and with it the last month of the cured-pork season — the belly and sausage come down after the New Year. Hotpot is still in its winter. The Lantern Festival has no Chongqing dish on our list; the small sweet tangyuan is a breakfast all year. Last of the foggy months for a rooftop drink.

Spring: wild greens come into the markets and zhe'ergen — sold all year — is at its most tender from now to May, dressed cold with chilli and vinegar. The cured pork is gone from the menus. The fog lifts and the rooftop bars get their skyline back.

Still the wild-greens and zhe'ergen month — try one bite of the root, no obligation. Qingming has no Chongqing dish on our list; eat the fixed must-eats: hotpot, xiaomian, douhua fan.

The turn to summer: the last month of tender zhe'ergen, and the first for bingfen, liangxia and lianggao from the street carts — the three cold desserts that close a hotpot. Hotpot houses keep bingfen all year; the cart version is a summer thing.

Summer eating opens: plastic tables on the Nanbin and Beibin embankments after dark, Shancheng beer by the case, skewers by the ten; cold noodles with garlic water and vinegar at the noodle shops from now to August; bingfen to finish. The Dragon Boat Festival has no Chongqing dish on our list.

The heat is the norm, not the exception: the city goes out after dark — night beer and grilled skewers on the river embankments, bingfen and liangxia to cool down, cold noodles at lunch. The hotpot houses are full anyway.

Peak heat — the city's red heat alerts are an August habit. Same summer table as July: embankment beer and skewers, bingfen, liangxia, and the last month for cold noodles.

Summer winds down: the last month for the embankment night beer and for the street-cart bingfen and liangxia; cold noodles are over. Mid-Autumn usually falls here and has no Chongqing dish on our list.

Early winter: the cured-pork season starts — from now to the Spring Festival the balconies hang smoked belly, mala sausage and cured ribs for soup. Hotpot comes back onto its home ground. On the rooftop bars the fog season begins: November to February nights often hide the skyline.

Deep winter: cured pork with garlic shoots as the side and cured-rib soup as the soup at the home-style restaurants, from now to February; hotpot every night. The winter solstice has no Chongqing dish on our list; the hotpot is the answer anyway.