Ants on the tree

Have you ever heard about “Ants on the tree”?

Last Friday I went to a Chinese restaurant with my friends. I have been in Chinese restaurants before and I have always ordered almost the same dishes so that time I wanted to change my routine. Among my typical options of Chinese food as sweet and sour pork, spring rolls, etc., I found a dish which name sounds me very weird. It was called “Ants on the tree”! so, obviously, I did not ordered that dish, but I was wondering what would this dish looks like all night long, and the most important thing, would it be made up with ants?. Thus, as soon as I arrived home, I searched it on internet. It seems to be a very popular dish of the Chinese cuisine, particularly from Szechuan Province. It consist of meat cooked in gravy and soy noodles. After reading that I still did not know what this plate was named like that, so I kept on searching. It seemed to me very original when I found out that the name comes from the way that food looks when it is being cooked. As I have read, while cooking it, bits of meat cling to the noodles because of the heat of the preparation, so it evokes an image similar to that of the ants walking on twigs of a tree. I got relaxed after reading the explanation! So, maybe, the next time I try this dish.