Exploring Zigong: The rivers, lakes and heat in a plate of Kung Pao waist
Within the scope of Chinese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine has successfully conquered the taste sensations of countless diners by virtue of its profound and broad "one thing, one style, one hundred flavors".
Whenever people talk about Sichuan cuisine, the first thing that comes to mind is often the spicy taste. It seems that that painful taste that can make people feel happy to the extreme is the whole scene of Sichuan Bayu.
Of course, only experienced diners of Sichuan cuisine will understand that the taste secrets of this rich land are much more complicated than simply spicy and spicy.
The twenty-four basic flavor types belong to Sichuan cuisine. They are like a set of precise chromatograms, blending many different atmospheres.
Among these, there is one flavor called lychee flavor, which is derived from the basis of spicy flavor, but is exquisitely blended with sweet and sour, presenting a wonderful landscape of balance and explosion on the tip of the tongue.
Just today, we will follow this wonderful and thought-provoking taste and go deep into the place called Zigong, Sichuan. It is a salt city that has prospered with salt and is famous for its unique taste for thousands of years, to find an authentic and representative delicacy: Kung Pao waist.
On the Zigong people's dining table, they have an almost stubborn emphasis on cooking offal. This stems from the integration of dock culture and city life in the history of the salt industry.
The eye-catching Kung Pao Chicken is an extremely gorgeous variation made by Zigong chefs on the classic Sichuan Kung Pao Chicken. The ordinary pork kidney is used to innovate, transforming it from decay into magic, and finally giving it a new and vibrant life.
The flavor of this dish is accurately defined as spicy lychee .
It is not just sour or sweet, but when you enter the mouth, you first feel a spicy aroma, which is instantly stimulated by dried chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns in hot oil. This aroma explodes like thunder, but disappears all of a sudden. Then, a sweet and slightly sour taste like lychee, which advances layer by layer, blends perfectly with the salty and fresh base, and finally leaves a long aftertaste in the mouth.
This is the advanced presentation method of Sichuan cuisine, focusing on the mutual balance of salty, sweet, sour, spicy, fresh and fragrant flavors. Each flavor will not overpower other flavors, ultimately achieving a complex but harmonious composite beauty.
The preparation of this regionally representative delicacy is an art form in itself with its unique production techniques that have been passed down for a long time. It particularly focuses on the chef's skills in cutting vegetables and making dishes, as well as the test of the stove's firepower, duration and other fire control abilities.
After selecting fresh pork loin and cutting it in half from the middle, the most critical and important step is to "remove the loin." This white fascia hidden deep in the core of the pork loin is the main source of the fishy smell. It must be removed cleanly and no carelessness is tolerated. This determines the absolutely authentic and authentic attributes of the final dish.
Next, experienced and skilled masters will carefully cut neatly and orderly cross-shaped flower knives on the waist, and then cut them into pieces. This is not only for the sake of appearance, but also has a deeper purpose, that is, during the process of rapid frying, the heat can be spread evenly quickly and instantly, and it will naturally curl into a graceful shape like a "phoenix tail".
The real skill lies between the stoves.
Zigong chefs are good at using mixed oil, that is, lard and vegetable oil, to heat the pot until it is 70% hot. When the oil temperature rises to 70% or 80%, they quickly add the seasoned and starched kidneys, ginger, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, and dried chili segments into the pot.
At that moment, the fire was cooking the oil, and a aroma rose from the pot.
I saw the chef's wrist shaking constantly, the iron pot flying continuously, the waist then spread out, and then began to turn again, finally showing a very attractive brown-red color, all of which were completed in a very short time. .
At this time, the "bowl gravy" that has been prepared long ago (it is based on the ratio of sweet and sour 1.5:1 , and is also mixed with pepper, cooking wine, soy sauce and water starch) is cooked along the edge of the pot, and then sprinkled with a handful of green onions and a few crispy peanuts. After stirring the spoon a few times, it is out of the pot immediately.
The whole process, from putting the ingredients in the pot to putting them on the plate, takes no more than twenty seconds!
The precise operation at this electric light and flint moment locks in all the juice and crispness of the waist, creating a crisp, tender and delicious state and a perfect natural roll shape.
Pick up a piece of food called Kung Pao waist and put it into your mouth. The first thing you encounter is the signature spicy and unique dry aroma. Slowly cutting in with your teeth, you feel the slight crispiness on the outside of the waist, and then the tenderness and rich juice inside suddenly gush out in your mouth.
The aroma of lychee, which is sweet and sour, salty and delicious, quickly envelopes the entire mouth. Crispy peanuts and fragrant scallions are interspersed in between, showing a very clear layer and a very long flavor.
This is not just a dish, but a microcosm of the food character of Zigong, a city in southern Sichuan. It shows a warm character, a direct posture, exquisite characteristics, and is full of intelligent connotations.
It proves that Sichuan cuisine is not only spicy, but also has a variety of complex flavors. Behind each flavor lies an in-depth understanding of the ingredients and the ultimate pursuit of cooking techniques.
Next time, the second time, when you savor Sichuan cuisine again, you might as well look for a dish called Kung Pao waist. In the crispness and mellow aroma of one bite, you can feel the secrets contained in the long history and long origin of the food culture of Bashu land.
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