There’s no surer sign of commitment to the cause than a restaurant with woks built into the tables. Here that cause is a chicken stew called chaihuo ji, one of many culinary miracles of Sichuan province, and those woks will soon be performing the holy work of bringing it to life.

Sticky pieces of dough are slapped along the pan’s curved inside, steam slowly transforming them to dumplings. Beyond what’s bubbling away at every table, this casual neighbourhood darling owes its legacy to the strength of other Tsingtao-agreeable classics. Twice cooked pork is jammy with doubanjiang and rendered fat, bejewelled with fermented black beans.

Suancaiyu is a genius pairing of boiled fish and pickled mustard stems. Bingfen, one of the world’s great street desserts, is a plunge pool for the tongue: an explosion of fruit, nuts, jelly and date syrup that’s a cooling end to a fiery night.

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