4 EDITOR’S NOTE
Think of it as a love affair that burns too deep. It starts off as a warm fuzzy feeling and before you know it, you are fully seduced by the tongue tingling sensation that grows more intense by the minute.
Yes, we are talking about Sichuan cuisine. Mapo tofu, chilli poached beef slices, and mala chicken are all too familiar dishes among spice-loving foodies, and scorched tongues and sweaty foreheads are par for the course. The food from China’s southwestern province is liberally doused with fiery condiments like chillies – fresh, dried or pickled - and Sichuan peppercorns, all of which leave a lingering, mouth numbing heat on your throat you won't forget. The consensus is that if you don’t feel the burn after a meal at a Sichuan restaurant, you haven’t eaten the real thing.
Fortunately, Sichuan cuisine is also layered and complex, giving rise to the famous saying, “yi cai yi ge, bai cai bai wei”. It means that each dish has its own style, so a hundred dishes will produce a hundred different flavours. We shot this month’s cover spread at Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant, one of the pioneers of authentic Sichuan cuisine in Singapore. Flip through the pages from page 70 and try out the nine recipes; some are spicy classics, others offer a different spectrum of flavours that go beyond mala. (The super light and healthy Minced Chicken Soup with Morel Fungus is a delightful surprise.)
If Sichuan food does not fire up your palate, then travel with us to Taipei, one of my favourite Asian cities. While there, freelance writer Jessica Chan discovered a slew of taprooms that serves artisan craft beers infused with local fruits and herbs and mixologists who use local liquors like kaoliang and mijiu to concoct some delicious and innovative tipples. Read her article on page 96. If you want to skip the touristy eats and get an insider's glimpse into Taipei’s food scene, you’ll need someone like Vanessa Huang to clue you in, The chef-owner of Ephernité, a farm-to-table French restaurant in Taipei, opens up her little black book of great eats on page 90. Don’t we all need a trusty friend like her for all our gourmet adventures?