One of the clearest memories I have from my early teaching days here in Chongqing, is of a student telling me she was from the Sichuan town of YiBin.  Upon her saying this, the other students in the class got all excited and told me about a noodle  dish form her home town called YiBin Ran Mian(YiBin "Burning Noodles").  The enthusiasm the students showed for the dish inspired a curiosity in me that would not be settled until I tasted it.  Which didn't happen until a chance encounter years later, after I moved to the Shapingba neighborhood Gong Ren Cun(工人村).  I was returning home around 3am when I ran into an acquaintance getting out of a taxi near my house.  I asked what he was up to at that time of night and he told me he was going to eat YiBin ran mian.  Now, my Chinese isn't very good, and back then it was even worse, but even after two or so years I remembered those words. "YiBin ran mian."  And according to my acquaintance the place he was going was 'famous' for their version of the dish.  

Many a time I have been told by Chinese friends of the deliciousness of one dish or another.  "You have to try this sheep's anus, Its so delicious!" Or, "Have you eaten pig snout?  It is very delicious."  Often times flavors and textures that are considered delicacies or "delicious" here, don't translate as such to the western pallet.  This whoever was not the case with YiBin ran mian which lived up to the hype surrounding it.  

Though served a number of different ways, with a variety of meats, vegetables and seasonings, the traditional style, for witch my neighborhood xiao chi is famous(apparently ranked #2 in Chongqing), is a dry noodle dish, dressed in a bit of chili oil and topped with peanuts, green onion, and yacai(芽菜, dry pickled sprouts) and is a great menu option for the vegetarians out there.  If you're an avid meat eater you can add beef(huan ran mian/焕然面), or go for the ran chaoshou(燃抄手) which is pork wontons with all the ran mian fixings.    

YiBin Ran Mian is located in Shapingba gongrencun, just off of Hanyu Lu,roughly 100 meters from the traffic light(take a left if going up the hill, the restaurant will be on the left across the road from a large gymnasium [现代书城]).

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