Beijing, January 21 (Reporter Shangguan Yun) In the cold winter, steaming food has warmed the stomachs of countless foodies, and Sichuan cuisine is also one of them.
Recently, a book called "Sichuan Cuisine" written by British food writer Fuxia Dunlop has caught fire. She has studied Chinese cuisine and Chinese food culture for more than 20 years, won the James Beard Award for Culinary Writing, the "Oscar" of the culinary and catering industry, and also wanted to be a chef because she loved Sichuan cuisine.
Fu Xia cooks in the back kitchen of the "Fly Restaurant". Courtesy of Fuxia
How did an English girl form an indissoluble relationship with Chinese cuisine?
The birth of a food writer
Fuxia Dunlop is from Oxford, England. In the 1990s, when she traveled to China, her friends invited her to eat an authentic Sichuan meal, and it was this meal that affected the trajectory of her life.
The kitchen of fuxia's London home. Courtesy of Fuxia
After receiving a scholarship in 1994, Fuxia chose to study at Sichuan University. After coming to Chengdu, the comfortable rhythm of life and the food that can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys made her completely fall in love with Sichuan cuisine, and even picked up her childhood dream: becoming a chef.
At that time, Sichuan University was surrounded by old streets, and there were many stalls and fly restaurants. Fuxia would run to taste the Juntun Pot Kui, and would also eat a meal of Dan Dan noodles or sea noodles for lunch in a small noodle restaurant, and the delicious food always seemed to be different.
"Cucumber with garlic paste, duck hearts, fish eggplant... I've loved cooking since I was a kid, and after tasting so many delicious dishes, I soon had the idea of learning a little cooking technique. The first was to learn directly from teachers, friends, and chefs at small restaurants. She recalled.
Fuxia even spent 3 months to learn professional cooking at Sichuan Culinary College, becoming the first foreign student at that school. Walking into the kitchen, she learns cooking techniques, knife work, and how to season.
Summarizing her experience, she wrote her love for Chinese food into a book, such as "Sichuan Cuisine" and "Shark Fin and Pepper". In Fuxia's view, the greatness of Sichuan cuisine is "turning stones into gold", and just simple pork and eggplant can amaze the taste buds.
"Originally, I studied Sichuan cuisine and learned to make these Sichuan cuisines only because of hobbies, and there were no big plans, but it definitely changed my fate - through Sichuan cuisine, I became a food writer." 」 She said humorously.
An English girl who is fascinated by Sichuan cuisine
Compared to Shark Fin and Peppercorns, Sichuan Cuisine is a local recipe: from pots and pans to spices, it covers 200 classic Sichuan dishes.
Fish and meat shreds made by Fuxia. Pictured from "Sichuan Cuisine". Courtesy of the publisher
"My original purpose in writing this book was to introduce Westerners to Sichuan cuisine and the diverse cuisines of China." Fuxia wants to reflect the richness of Sichuan cuisine as much as possible in the book, from street food to banquet dishes, from farmhouse dishes to home-cooked meals, "If there are chicken bean flowers, then there must be a stir-fried chicken offal." ”
Some recipes are certainly indispensable, such as mapo tofu, back pot meat, dan dan noodles, and fish-flavored dishes. In addition to these, Fuxia chose some of her favorite dishes, such as tamales and rotten parsley.
Sometimes, Fu xia's food notes may record several different recipes for a dish. She then flipped through the data, and then set the standard through the practice of the kitchen, "do it yourself, record the practice and evaluate the results each time, and next time you can adjust it slightly according to this." ”
Camphor tea duck is time-consuming, and few people in Chengdu make this dish at home, and she will also make it in a serious way, making the house full of smoke.
"Making this dish at home is certainly not as good as a special chef, but if you only smoke duck legs or duck breasts, it is still delicious, not too troublesome, it is best to smoke slowly in the yard." She came to a conclusion.
All the dishes and snacks in the picture are made by Fu Xia herself, with the only exception being buns, which are the masterpieces of her chef friend Wei Guirong, "because after so many years, I still can't wrap buns that are beautiful enough to appear on camera." ”
In the above dishes, she is quite proud of the set of Chengdu famous snacks, "I have made each snack snack separately, the cold powder is ordered by myself, and the sweet stuffing of Ye'er is fresh." There is also a hot waist flower, because I think among foreigners, my knife skills are OK. ”
The food culture behind the dishes
From another point of view, Fuxia sorts out the recipes, but reflects the vivid life and the discussion of food culture.
She has eaten eight major Chinese cuisines. Fu Xia described that the spicy sichuan cuisine has a hint of sweetness, just like the laid-back Sichuanese, always with sweet thoughtfulness; Hunan cuisine is direct and has no room for compromise; Yangzhou cuisine is the food of the Taiping Dynasty, warm and soothing.
The new edition of "Sichuan Cuisine" book cover. Courtesy of the publisher
"The most representative of the soul of Sichuan cuisine is still folk dishes." Fu Xia said that only very ordinary raw materials are needed, the cooking method is not too complicated, but the taste is very good, "If Sichuan cuisine is a person, this person must be very funny, very humorous, very generous." ”
In the self-prologue of the new version of "Sichuan Cuisine", Fuxia will be very emotionally nostalgic for some dishes she once ate in Chengdu, which have almost disappeared now. The daily life of old Chengdu, written in some of the recipes in the first edition, has now almost disappeared.
She explained that Sichuan cuisine is so vast and vast, with its rich regional diversity, that it is impossible to write about it in one book. But hopefully, this book will lead the way for readers in the English-speaking world and go a little further.
Documentary filmmaker Chen Xiaoqing commented, "We need Chinese food messengers like Fuxia to walk between Eastern and Western cultures, let the world know more about China, and let Chinese stand in the coordinates of the world to know their own culture, as well as their own three meals a day." ”
"Sichuan cuisine means a lot of experiences to me, a lot of friends, and it's a part of my life." Fuxia said that through Sichuan cuisine, she realized China's culture and history, "Of course, I also ate a lot of good things, which is really blessed!" (End)
Source: China News Network