Sichuan Specialties

Szechuan Cuisine or Sichuan Cuisine (pinyin: chuān cài), originating in the Sichuan province of western China, has an international reputation for being spicy and flavorful. Some well-known Szechuan dishes include "Kung Pao Chicken" and "Twice Cooked Pork". Although many Szechuan dishes live up to their spicy reputation, often ignored are the large percentage of recipes that use little or no spice at all, including recipes such as "Tea Smoked Duck".
What many do not realize is that the chili pepper, a common ingredient in Szechuan cuisine (often used unseeded), was only introduced to China following Columbus's discovery of the New World. Chili peppers were perhaps introduced to the remote Szechuan province by Western missionaries.
Previous Szechuan cuisine was not completely without spice, however. Szechuan pepper is an indigenous plant (fruit) that produces a milder spice, and is still a key ingredient in Szechuan food to this day. The reason for this emphasis on spice may derive from the region's warm, humid climate. This climate also necessitates sophisticated food-preservation techniques which include pickling, salting, drying and smoking.
Demonstration of these techniques can be seen in the preparation of the traditional cold dishes. Common cooking techniques in Szechuan cuisine include stir frying, steaming and basting. Beef is more common in Szechuan cuisine than it is in other Chinese cuisines, perhaps due to the widespread use of oxen in the region. Stir-fried beef is often cooked until chewy, while steamed beef is sometimes coated with rice flour to produce a rich gravy.
Some common Szechuan dishes include:
• Kung Pao Chicken
• Tea Smoked Duck
• Twice Cooked Pork
• Mapo Tofu (Tender Tofu in Spicy Sauce)
• Fuqi Feipian (Husband and Wife Beef Slices)

Traditional Szechuan 金鼎川菜Cold Dish Appetizers
Cold dishes not only serve as appetizers, they are an important component of a whole dinner because of their unique flavors. In a typical Chinese feast, cold dishes give the diner a light taste of what is to come.
The cooking skills for cold dishes vary a great deal from those for preparing warm dishes. Most cold dishes do not require any coating or thickening of the sauce with cornstarch. Some do not even need to be boiled or cooked, but can be made by simply mixing the required ingredients. Cold dishes are characterized by the clarity and tenderness of the ingredients. Unlike many warm dishes that send forth their aroma into the air, cold dishes are usually sensed by taste rather than smell. Cold dishes, therefore, often make use of many kinds of spices and flavorings such as Chinese peppercorn, aniseed, fennel, orange peel, clove, scallions, ginger and sesame paste that are used to make sauces.

Throughout history cold dishes have always been paired with alcoholic beverages. From the poorest farmer to the richest emperor, liquor and 小菜 (small dishes) or cold dishes have been matched with good food and good humor. Take a whiff of our Szechuan rice liquor五粮液 Wu Liang Ye or 剑南老窖Jian Nan Lao Jiao and you’ll see why we have to have strong flavors in these appetizers, or have a bottle of 青岛啤酒Tsingtao Beer.

A Special Story of a Szechuan Cold Dish
“Husband and Wife Lung Slices”
In Chengdu, China (Szechuan Province) during the 1920s and 1930s, Guo Chaohua opened, in the name of himself and his wife, a small restaurant serving sliced ox lungs. They took so much care in preparing the dish and used the right degree of fire and spices, including chili, Chinese prickly ash and sesame oil, that people graced their restaurant very often. Since the husband and wife managed the place together, people gave a nickname to the house specialty: “Husband and Wife Lung Slices.” The dish has since been improved again and gain. Nowadays, beef is used instead of ox lungs, and the change has made the dish all the more delicious. In fact, it has become a special Szechuan style cold dish.
Enlai, Zhang. Chinese Cuisine – Recipes and Their Stories.
China: Foreign Languages Press, 2001

The Story of Ma Po Tofu

In the 19th century, a woman with a pocked face lived by the Wanfu Bridge in Chengdu, Szechuan. People called her, without any ill feelings, Pock-faced Lady Chen. She operated a restaurant to serve bean curd, hot and spicy, was delicious and much liked by the customers. They liked the dish so much that they called it Pock- faced Woman’s Tofu. The name spread and the dish eventually achieved international repute as a special delicacy.
Enlai, Zhang. Chinese Cuisine – Recipes and Their Stories.
China: Foreign Languages Press, 2001

The Kung Pao Story

There are many interpretations of the original name of this dish in Chinese “Gong Bao Ji Ding” (roughly meaning Imperial Guard and Diced Chicken); one of the most popular dishes in Chinese cuisine, but the most accepted explanation is that the name came from a man who had a particular love for the taste of this dish. Ding Baozhen served a governor in Shandong and Szechuan province. The imperial court gave him the title “Tai Zi Shao Bao” (Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent), in recognition of his merits and services and people referred to him as Ding Gong Bao or Ding, the Imperial Guardian. According to the story, soon after he arrived in Szechuan, his subordinates took him to dinner. Knowing his special fondness for diced chicken and green pepper, they prepared such a dish. Ding asked for the name of the dish and his subordinates told him that it was specially cooked for him and so they named the dish after his title “Gong Bao Ji”. After that, the name spread as the dish acquired greater popularity throughout the country.

Enlai, Zhang. Chinese Cuisine – Recipes and Their Stories.
China: Foreign Languages Press, 2001

Story of Mandarin Fish Soup

In 1180, Zhao Gou, or Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, got into an imperial boat for a cruise on West Lake in Hangzhou. He told his guards to buy fish and turtles caught from the lake and to then release them into the water. They came across a lady called Fifth Sister Song who made her living by selling fish soup. The Emperor asked her to get into his boat so that he could try her soup, which he greatly enjoyed. Seeing the woman was old, he gave her silk as gifts. This encounter helped make Fifth Sister Song’s soup popular and all the wealthy people wanted to have some. Today it remains a traditional dish in Hangzhou.

Zhao Gou (1107 A.D. – 1187 A.D.) was the emperor of the Song Dynasty from 1127 to 1162. He employed Yue
Fei, a general who fought tenaciously against the invading Kin troops from the north, signed an agreement of peace with the Kin, and ceded land to them. He thus sought a short lived period peace at the expense of greater danger to his dynasty.

Enlai, Zhang. Chinese Cuisine – Recipes and Their Stories.
China: Foreign Languages Press, 2001

魚香類 Fish-Fragrant Garlic Flavor

There are several explanations for the name of this dish, which contains no fish. One of the more notable explanations is when one day a husband asked his wife to make something similar to what he had the day before. He was craving the wonderful fish flavor that his wife had made, but he only had left scraps from that meal and his wife being very inventive, shredded some pork and used the leftover scraps from the fish to make a fish-fragrant shredded pork dish. The husband enjoyed the aroma and flavor of the dish so much, that she started using the fish-fragrant flavor on many other meats. Whatever its origin, this sweet, sour, and hot sauce is delicious with shrimp, chicken, eggplant, and broccoli as well as pork. It's often translated as "garlic sauce" on many restaurant menus.

面點 Noodles
Noodles, foodstuffs made from rice, and other cereals, predominantly in Asia may have originated in the Arab countries in the eastern Mediterranean, one of the few areas of the world where they are seldom found except in the form of couscous.
In China their history is rather better documented. Noodles made from wheat appeared in the north where they were well established by AD 100, probably using technology imported from the Middle East. Chinese rulers were the first to enjoy them, but, as wheat-based noodles are nutritious, store well, and are easy to prepare, they were quickly adopted and their popularity has never diminished. From China, noodles found their way into the cuisines of most Asian countries: Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
In South China, rice noodles predominated. Rice flourishes in the warmer southern climate, whereas the northern climate favors wheat cultivation. In Asia noodles are differentiated more by what they are made from than their shape. They can be made from not only rice and wheat, but also mung beans, barley, soy beans, buckwheat, seaweed, and tapioca.
Almost every country that cultivates either rice or wheat has developed a form of pasta or noodle. There are exceptions, though. Pasta has rarely been featured in the cuisines of either France or the UK, and noodles are not widely found on the Indian subcontinent. Noodles owe their popularity and longevity to a combination of intrinsic advantages. They are cheap to manufacture, are nutritious and filling, are quickly prepared, can be eaten hot or cold, can be stored for years, and can be transported easily.

Story of Liquor in China

Wine plays an important part in Chinese lives and has a long history. Just like such daily necessities as rice, salt and oil, liquor also has a close relationship with Chinese people‘s lives. According to some scholars, China is one of the countries with the longest history of making liquor. They believe that the history of making wine can be traced back to the period of Shennong‘s reign more than 7,000 years ago. He was a legendary ruler, also sometimes called Yandi, who is supposed to have introduced agriculture and herbal medicine.
　　
At that time, the ancestors of Chinese people gave up their nomadic lifestyle and opted to live in compact communities in the Yellow River valley. The plantation of various kinds of grain laid the foundation for making tempting wines. Other scholars hold the view that the technique of making Chinese liquor originated in the Xia Dynasty (c.2100 BC-c.1600 BC) Yi Di and Du Kang are considered to be two founding fathers of the profession of making liquor. According to historical records, it was Yi Di who made great efforts to make mellow wine with fermented glutinous rice at the order of the then monarch, Yu. The wine made by Yi Di tasted good. He asked Yu to sample the top-quality wine, hoping to receive rewards.
　　
After tasting the wine, Yu was satisfied with its unparalleled taste. However, the monarch set no store by the wine producer‘s ability. The monarch estranged himself from Yi Di instead of rewarding him. In the eyes of the monarch, the mesmerizing wine was wicked because indulging in excessive drinking could make him lose his reason and harm his country. Du Kang, living in the Xia Dyanasty, is also credited with making top-notch liquor with Chinese sorghum. According to historical legends, Du Kang stored some cooked Chinese sorghum seeds inside a hollow tree stump on a winter day. In the spring of the following year, a fragrant aroma wafted from the tree stump into the nostrils of Du Kang. Afterwards, Du Kang found that it was the fermented sorghum seeds which gave off the alluring fragrance.
　　
This accidental discovery gave rise to his inspiration of making liquor with fermented sorghum seeds. In addition to medicinal liquor, the wines drunk and favored by ordinary Chinese people are mainly made from cereal, fruits and fermented cow‘s or mare‘s milk. Among all Chinese spirits, the yellow rice wine (Shaoxing wine) is probably the most popular. The history of the wine certainly dates back to the Spring and Autuman Period (770 BC-476 BC). The city of Shaoxing belonged to Yue State at that time. Before launching attacks on other states, the kings of Yue state would pour yellow rice wine into the river. The kings‘ soldiers then vied with each other to drink the wine by jumping into the river. They believed that the wine played a key role in boosting morale.
　　
In addition, ordinary people were also enamored with the fragrant yellow rice wine. In ancient times, family members would set out to make Shaoxing wine with rice shortly after a girl was born. Having poured the well-prepared wine into bottles, they would cover the bottles up with soil underground. They did not touch them again until the girl grew up and was ready to be married. Only before the wedding ceremony was held did the girl‘s family members unearth the bottles full of yellow rice wine. During the wedding ceremony, the bride‘s family members would entertain all the guests with the old wine. Such a kind of yellow rice wine is called nu‘erhong.