If you thought the only Sichuan culinary export was chillies, think again. There is a Sichuan dish commonly cooked all across the mainland, and by Chinese cooks worldwide - yuxiang qiezi , or "eggplant with the fragrance of fish". Despite its name, this dish of eggplant cooked with a sauce of garlic, ginger, spring onion and chilli sometimes features minced pork, but is always entirely devoid of fish. It is said that there was once a wealthy trading family in Sichuan who were gourmets. They were known for using rather sophisticated cooking techniques at home. One night, they were cooking fish to their own special recipe with finely chopped garlic, ginger, spring onion and chilli. These ingredients all had to be cooked slowly in a wok to release their flavours, before the fish could be added. This was supposedly much more work than many home cooks were used to, but brought out the true flavours of the fish. The next day, the man of the house was out on a business trip and wasn't expected home for dinner. But he made it home early, and asked his wife to cook for him. His wife didn't have much to hand. Seeing that there were leftover condiments from the previous night's fish dish, she decided to combine these with eggplant, the only main ingredient she could find in her kitchen. As she sent the dish out, she feared that her husband, being a serious gourmet, would realise that she had used leftovers, and disapprove. To her surprise, he polished it all off and praised her for creating such a delicious dish. He hadn't realised that this was the same sauce used for the previous night's fish. Although delighted by his praise, his wife confessed that this was so. Since then, regardless of what the main ingredient is, anything served with this sauce has been called yuxiang .