There's an old joke about Hunan food: 'The Sichuanese are not afraid of chile heat; No degree of hotness will afright [sic] the people of Guizhou, but those Hunanese are afraid of food that isn't hot.' And while the Hunanese were China's early chile adopters, there's more to this cuisine than lashings of heat.
Chairman Mao Zedong, who hailed from spice-loving Hunan province, once said, "You can't be a revolutionary if you don't eat chiles." The Hunanese food writer Liu Guochu says Mao loved spice so much he sprinkled ground chiles on slices of watermelon.
This misperception has its roots in how Hunan food was introduced to the American public, according to Kian Lam Kho, the author of Chinese food blogwho is currently working on a cookbook of classic Chinese cooking techniques. During the 1940s, a group of Chinese chefs trained in Hunan and Sichuan cuisines fled to Taiwan after the Communist takeover of mainland China. Some of these chefs prospered in Taiwan, then sought opportunities in the U.S.
"Without chiles you can't eat rice," runs a popular Chinese adage. Chiles are a whole class of flavorings in Hunan, and different kinds are used in different ways.flavor, the Hunanese prefer the sharp one-two punch of vinegar-pickled chiles with salt for something called. This hot, sour, and salty concoction is used as a relish for noodles and steamed fish heads, the latter of which Dunlop notes is currently one of the most popular Hunanese dishes.
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