Enchanting Hunan Cuisine
HUNAN’S cuisine is well-known both at home and abroad for its unique cooking style, an abundant use of ingredients, rich and bright colors, and high nutritional value. Due to its geography, Hunan Province has a climate featuring high humidity combined with high temperatures, where the inhabitants have dietary habits completely different from those in the Central Plain areas.
The terrain of Hunan is low and the climate warm and humid, not naturally suitable for storage of fresh meat, but smoked bacon is stored with ease. According to folklore, bacon was invented by ancestors of the Miao ethnic minority. In ancient times, the Miaos were forced to leave their homes due to frequent wars, and they found it difficult to take livestock and grain with them, so they made glutinous rice cakes, and cured meat that was marinated and smoked and thus more convenient to carry and store for a longer duration of time. It was speculated that the processed meat was made from beasts that were shot by bows and arrows. And the dehydrating method is regarded as the earliest meat preservation method in China, dating back some 2,000 years.
Bacon deserves a good price as it takes time to prepare it. During winter months, chunks of pork bellies and whole chickens, ducks, and fish are marinated with salt, pepper, fennel, star anise, cinnamon, garlic cloves, and other spices, then dried on top of a bamboo pole outdoors. The dried meat is hung up in the stove and fire-cured till its color turns black signifying that the meat is ready. Then it is chopped into pieces, placed in a large bowl, and steamed over a big fire. Within nearly a month, the meticulously cooked meat has turned into a delicacy featuring the most primitive and simple taste that conveys the sincerity and hospitality of the local people.
Hunan is also known as the “land of fish and rice.” The locals have all kinds of ways of preparing and eating fish. Bighead carp is chosen to be steamed with chopped pepper. When done, boiling hot oil is poured onto the fish head to let the fresh fragrance of the fish fully mingle with the pepper. A combination of rich and bright colors — red chili, green coriander, black fermented soybeans, white green onion, and yellow minced ginger — can perfectly excite a diner’s appetite.
Catfish has thick meat and is most suitable for stewing soup. The creamy white soup adorned with green peppers is another dish that deserves a try.
Smoked duck is also a famous Hunan dish. It is made by adding over 10 different kinds of spices, and goes through 15 different processes such as drying and roasting during preparation. The final product is deep red in color and rich in flavors, and has crispy skin and tender meat. It is a good match for a bottle of wine.
The taste of Hunan cuisine goes beyond spicy and salty. It can also be sweet and evocative. For example, the red and bright color of Mao’s braised pork displays a waxy texture and a sweet taste, which come from lavish use of sugar. Snowflake Meatballs are made with pork fillings added in peach crisp, creating a rich flavor that is very sweet. The sugary sweet glutinous rice cake is also among the most common and fondest memories of Hunan people on cold winter days.