Cuisine

Sichuan

四川菜

Mala: chilli heat plus Sichuan pepper's citrus-tingle, in a cuisine that is also deeply savoury and numbing, not merely 'spicy'.

Chilli arrived from the Americas and Sichuan made it structural. Mapo tofu is Chengdu home cooking that restaurants globalised.

Doubanjiang, Sichuan pepper, chilli oil, garlic, and tofu or offal treated with respect.

Dishes

Mapo tofu

麻婆豆腐

Sichuan tofu in a chilli-bean sauce with minced pork, Sichuan pepper, and enough oil to carry the mala.

35 min·Medium·🌶️🌶️🌶️

Dan dan mian

担担面

Sichuan noodles in a sesame-chilli sauce with a little pork — mala, not a peanut-butter soup.

27 min·Easy·🌶️🌶️🌶️