Celebrity Author Car Chu Reflects on Hot and Spicy Chinese Cuisine (1/3)

Recently Carl Chu, best selling author of the ”Chinese Food Finder” series of definitive guides for the true lover of Chinese food, agreed to share his food-thoughts with us. What region(s) contain the spiciest foods? Among the areas of China dominated by the ethnic Hans, the southwestern region is renowned for its hot and spicy foods. Sichuan province has by far the most famous example. Hunan also has a similar reputation. Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are lesser known, even though it was Guizhou that gave the world Gongbao (Kungpao) Chicken. What are the essential ingredients for spicy foods? Sichuan cuisine is best known for its numbing-hot flavor, which is wholly dependent on dried red chili and the Sichuan peppercorn. The fruit berry of a prickly ash tree actually, the Sichuan peppercorn gives a numbing sensation to the mouth. It complements the hotness of chili very well. Other spices commonly seen in Sichuan cooking include star anise, cloves, and licorice. Are Chinese restaurants truly offering the most authentic spices in their offerings? Are they adapting the taste to suit the American palate at the expense of tradition, or is it an improvement? Spices are generally easy to obtain here in the U.S., but I’m afraid there aren’t too many authentic Chinese restaurants simply because the American palate is not accustomed to these dishes. For too long, Cantonese cooking (from Guangdong province), which is not spicy at all, dominated worldwide perception of Chinese food because for about 150 years about the only Chinese overseas were the Guangdong people. Hot & spicy foods from Sichuan, for instance, never had a chance to develop in the U.S. About adapting to the American palate, I would say it is an interesting and hopeful thing for the future of Chinese food. It is always exciting to sample different ways Chinese food can be prepared using unanticipated ingredients. When I visited Mexico and Trinidad, I saw Chinese dishes incorporating such local features as lime and rum. In what regions of the U.S. can you find authentic spicy Chinese cuisine? The west coast, and in particular L.A., has the most authentic Chinese cuisine, including the hot & spicy world of Sichuan. Over the past 15 years or so, the L.A. area has received so many immigrants from mainland China that it has become a repository of the Chinese culinary tradition. And because many have found ways to sneak in the Sichuan peppercorn, there are some truly amazing flavors to be had. The Bay Area has not attracted as many immigrants because it is a comparably more expensive place to settle for the poorer masses. Moreover, many of the Chinese in the Bay Area are professionals in the high-tech field, making them less likely to operate restaurants for a living. Where would you find the greatest dishes to sample (restaurants, U.S. locations, etc.)? If you want truly authentic cooking, stick with the mom-and-pop restaurants in highly concentrated Chinese areas. In L.A., you can find them all over the San Gabriel Valley, in towns like Alhambra, Monterey Park, and San Gabriel. In the Bay Area, the South Bay has become a magnet for the Chinese. Look for large scale Chinese-invested commercial developments in towns like Fremont, Milpitas, and Cupertino. Generally you can cruise around the malls and sample different foods from each region. Before you know it, you have tasted the entire culinary landscape of China. Hot & Spicy dishes seem to be better received by the American public, do you agree or disagree? Why?