China Eight: Sichuan Cuisine

Sichuan Province (Shu) is in Southwest China, and covers an area of 537,000 square kilometres, with a population of 94.5 million.

Definition

A people's food that differs, perhaps, from the nobility and official cuisine of Beijing. It is defined by the multiple rather than single use of flavours and is mostly a hot, pungent and salty food that is passionate and earthy in character.

History

Records date Sichuanese food to the Ba and Shu kingdoms, somewhere between the 20th and the fifth centuries BC. A multi-volume Sichuan cookbook appeared during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and in 1909, Fu Chongju's a General Guide to Chengdu catalogued 1,328 Sichuan dishes.

Much of the style of the cuisine originates from a time when there were great differences between the eating habits of the rich and poor, with the poor often eating what the rich threw away. Dishes using chicken feet, fish heads and intestines were cooked with chilies to disguise the taste and make them edible.  Today, these "throwaway" dishes are considered delicacies in Chinese cooking.

There is some dispute about the origin of the use of chilies in Sichuan cuisine, arguably first used during the Han Dynasty around 206 BC-AD 220. However, the chili (Capsicum annum) is known not to have arrived in Asia until the late 16th century and therefore could only have been added to the cuisine about 200 years ago.

Recipe Book

In the kitchen: vinegars, fermented soy bean pastes, hot pickled tubers, chili sauces and well salt from Zigong

At the cooker: quick-fry, stir-fry, dry-braising, and dry-stewing

On the table: Crisp salty pickles, sometimes sour and hot, sometimes sweet. Chilies and salted white cabbage

Local Flavour

Sichuan Well Salt

Salt is an enduring characteristic of Sichuan cuisine and is known for its use of locally mined well salt from places such as Zigong with its unique flavour. Cuisine purists argue that for the cuisine to be authentic, it must contain well salt.

Salt is a symbol of permanence and loyalty as in "He is the salt of the earth." It is also a symbol of fertility. The Romans called a man in love salax, or in a salted or salacious state.

Sound Bite

Name: Zhang Yanjun (Toby)

Age: 29

From: Chengdu

In my childhood: "My mother cooked a local bean-curd dish called ma po dou fu (pock-marked lady's tofu, which includes steamed tofu, local beans, ground beef and lots of spice). My earliest memory of it was when I was 4 years old."

In my kitchen: "Sautéed shredded pork with chili paste (yu xiang rou si) served to my family."

Words

Sichuan pepper, southern, hot, wild, chili, sour, well salt, pickled, numb, fertile, 'spice girls' (la mei zi).

Dishes

Man and wife meat slices, pock-marked lady's bean curd, velvet shark's fin, braised bear's paw, crisp roast duck, husband and wife's pork lung slices.