and food that can burn you down to a charred, smoking little stump. sichuan province, located in the southwest of china. over a thousand miles from beijing. a region so fertile and lush that it s been referred to as china s breadbasket. and its capitol, chengdu. despite its ever-growing skyline, it hasn t lost its deep culinary roots and traditions. man: heart. anthony: and i figured if i m going back to sichuan i should bring a friend. someone unused to the, how shall i say, level of heat commonly found in the food here. someone who s never been to china before and is unused to its ways. i m talking, of course, about chef eric ripert, of such three-star michelin restaurants as new york s le bernardin.
a delicious yet unpredictable silt of spice gathering at the bottom of this river of hot lava. if you dig deep, like, down to the sediment down there, the river bed, man. it s spicy. you feel enlightened yet? look how the colors changed in the broth. xiao: that was you kind of expected it? eric: yes. it is exactly what i expected it. [ laughs ] seven: more beers, guys? anthony: yeah. definitely. eric: i cannot think anymore. so i m gonna eat and drink. anthony: but the baijiu comes out and everything is fine again, for me, anyway. i m not so sure about eric. anthony: you re out of it, man. it s all good, though. it s all good. eric: okay. anthony: don t say okay.
and the spicy chili peppers like or the even hotter facing heaven chili provide the la, pure heat. so, if you imagine, like, isla, she wolf of the ss, tormenting you with nipple clamps as the la, the ma, provided by the pleasantly deranging peppercorns, would be like the naughty nurse with the ice cubes. [ singing ] anthony: what s your uh, what s your feeling on msg? eric: i don t mind msg. anthony: yeah, i think it s good stuff. eric: i do not react to it. anthony: right. no, no. me too. nobody does. it s a it s a lie, man. eric: well, you find a lot of natural msg in tomatoes. anthony: in breast milk. in parmesan. eric: yeah, in a lot of products. anthony: yeah. you know what causes chinese restaurant syndrome? racism. [ eric laughs ] anthony: ooh, i ha a headache. it must have been the chinese
pure heat. so, if you imagine, like, isla, she wolf of the ss, tormenting you with nipple clamps as the la, the ma, provided by the pleasantly deranging peppercorns, would be like the naughty nurse with the ice cubes. [ singing ] anthony: what s your uh, what s your feeling on msg? eric: i don t mind msg. anthony: yeah, i think it s good stuff. eric: i do not react to it. anthony: right. no, no. me too. nobody does. it s a it s a lie, man. eric: well, you find a lot of natural msg in tomatoes. anthony: in breast milk. in parmesan. eric: yeah, in a lot of products. anthony: yeah. you know what causes chinese restaurant syndrome? racism. [ eric laughs ] anthony: ooh, i have a headache. it must have been the chinese guy. go: most of the traditional,
chen: we re about, maybe, 115 kilometers away from the center city of chengdu. anthony: chen zhong is a filmmaker from beijing who often returns to chengdu, the place of his birth, to enjoy the more laid-back pace. anthony: so, on the weekends, everybody comes out to, what s it called? chen: it s a term to describe a place like this. it means, you know, that the agricultural family happiness. something like that. anthony: agricultural family happiness. or rural family happiness. chen: rural, yeah, rural family happiness. it s like the rural families, they are holding the business like this. a restaurant and also an entertainment place for people to come over to eat, to enjoy the view, to fish, and to play mahjong. anthony: you ever do that? when you go back to france, go a weekend, help somebody pick grapes, do agricultural work? eric: not really.