Food for funny tastes

Guo often makes fun of his partner, Yu Qian, in his xiangsheng skits, teasing him about his three hobbies-smoking, drinking and perming his hair. The menu's first signature dish is based on this gag.

Liu dyes instant noodles black with squid ink and adds mushroom sauce. It's served in an opened baijiu (white spirit) bottle with dry ice.

"We've also designed an edible perming iron made of candy and silk noodles," Liu says.

"It's one of our most popular dishes."

Liu's pig-intestine sashimi is actually lightly stewed to appear raw. It's drizzled with mustard sauce.

"We experimented dozens of times until the sauce was good," Liu says.

"Most dishes' names are abstract. So, we used our imaginations to make them real."

Smashed tofu with eggs is easier for Liu because Guo already features the recipe in his xiangsheng.

Liu improves upon the dish by adding turnip sprouts and fried dried sea shrimp.

He also upgrades the steamed pig head with rock candy by using northern Chinese meat-stewing techniques in which the sugar caramelizes and changes the pork's color.

The drinkable pyramidal steamed buns stuffed with brown sugar took Liu a long time to figure out because the sugar is too hot to drink directly.