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SCMP Reporter

Eating real Sichuanese food is like giving your taste buds a workout, taking your tongue down to the gym to give all those latent senses some stimulation.

   Taste is, indeed, a matter of senses. The taste buds respond to four different types of tastes: sweet, sour, bitter and salt.

  This may sound technical but bear with me. The sensations which we enjoy when we eat our favourite dishes are, in theory, subtle combinations of these four elements.

  Heat is pain. If you have ever inadvertently eaten your way through a whole green chilli you will understand. A little pain can, of course, mean a little pleasure; pain can be exciting for your taste buds.

  Some experts believe eating chilli weakens the sensitivity of the taste buds; aficionados say sensitivity is actually enhanced by the heat and flavours take on a fresh quality.

  Of course, it is impossible now to imagine Sichuanese food without chilli. But until the late 17th century, when the Portuguese brought chilli to China from its native South America, the Sichuan basin's millions of residents made do without.

  To add interest to their food, they used a variety of herbs, buds and grains.

  One bud had an odd effect on the palate - a numbing effect like a mild anaesthetic. This spice had a peppery citrus flavour, a pronounced flowery aroma and, if over-used, could develop a soapy flavour.

  The spice is called huadiao, which translates as 'flower pepper'. In the West, it collected a confusing array of names - fagara, badrang and Sichuan peppercorns - and its extensive use is unique to Sichuanese food.

  Sichuanese chefs found an affinity between the heat sensation of the chilli and the anaesthetic effect of the Sichuan peppercorns - they combined them with other ingredients in dishes that challenged the appetite rather than pandering to it. Shocking, yet sensual effects were the desired result.

  Regrettably, much of the Sichuan food available in Hong Kong is disappointing.

  Most restaurants tend to tone down the fiery nature of the cuisine in an effort to appease the more timid taste buds of Cantonese and tourist clientele. The House of Tang makes no such compromise - its Sichuanese food is totally authentic. The chefs, the spices and the attitude are all imported from Chengdu, the regional capital.

  In 1995, when the Metropole Hotel first began serving Sichuanese food, it sought the services of one of the most respected chefs in China, Liu Guozhu. He was the first Chinese chef to be invited to join the prestigious international gourmet organisation, Chaine des Rotisseurs.

  In 1982 he was rated 'technical executive chef', the highest rank in the Chinese system. Mr Liu has worked at the Grand Hotel, Beijing, since his apprenticeship began in 1964.

  Metropole executive chef Yim Siu-wai believes Mr Liu 'is the number one chef in China'.

  Several times a year, he travels to Hong Kong to instruct and advise the House of Tang's three Sichuanese chefs, who he hand-picked from Chengdu in 1995.

  One of the classic Sichuanese dishes is kung pao chicken (sauteed diced chicken with peanut and chilli). Mr Yim says it was named in honour of a Beijing bureaucrat who was exiled to Sichuan.

  Dark chicken meat is diced and marinated with cornflour, wine and seasoning. The chicken pieces are then 'poached' in hot oil, which gives the chicken a velvety texture.

   Dried red chillies are fried in a hot wok until they darken. Fresh chilli, garlic and ginger are added, followed by spring onions, green pepper, roasted Sichuan peppercorns and the diced chicken. Dark vinegar, sugar and soy are added and finally, peanuts are sprinkled over the top.

  This dish is enormously popular in Sichuan. It is extravagantly flavoured with the sugar and vinegar adding a balance of sweet and sour. The chillis add the pain, the huadiao, the anaesthetic.

  The textural contrasts between the velvety chicken, the crunchy peanuts, the chewy dried chilli and the crispy green pepper establish another layer of interest.

  The flavours and textures are 'full on', pushed to the limit, typifying the Sichuanese approach.

  Another renowned dish is Tan (sometimes translated as Dan Dan) noodles. This is street food. Hot wheat-flour noodles are placed in a bowl with Sichuanese light soy sauce, chopped spring onion, preserved cabbage (zha chai), huajiao oil (made by steeping the peppercorns in the spice) and chilli oil.

  Dry-fried minced beef is then sprinkled on top and the bowl filled with rich chicken stock.

  This method differs from most printed recipes because it contains no peanuts or sesame pastes.

  The Sichuanese love duck, 'smoked duck Szechuan style' is marinated with coarse salt, huadiao, dried orange peel and ginger. It is then simmered in a broth infused with herbs.

  The smoking takes 15 minutes (in an oven) over a mixture of Sichuanese tea (Jiang Cha) and glutinous rice. Just before serving, the bird is deep-fried until a beautiful russet colour.

  Another famous duck dish is 'deep-fried crispy duckling', which easily beats its Beijing competitor. The skin is crisp and crunchy and the meat falls easily from the bone when pulled with chopsticks.

  Because of a lengthy marination in a mixture of roasted salt and huadiao, the aroma is spicy and flowery. Despite the deep-frying, the duck is almost devoid of fat.



Taste the pleasure and pain