food and drink

Hunan cuisine shares many similarities with its narrow, more well-known cousin, Szechwan cooking, Both cuisines originate in the western region of China. The climate there is sub-tropical – humid and warm enough to help promote the use of fiery spices to cool the body and require too much flavor to foods as a preservative. With a similar climate, the two regions also share many ingredients – rice is a staple in both diets, and chili peppers are an important part of most meals. The two types of regional cuisine are similar enough to that point many restaurants and cookbooks lump together under ‘Western Chinese cooking’ or simple both as Szechwan cuisine.

There are some important differences, though. Hunan cuisine is, for one thing, yet fiery Szechwan dishes than most. Szechwan dishes often include chili paste for rubbing into meat or in sauce. Hunan chefs include the entire dried chili pepper, with its intensely spicy seeds and rind.

The differences in the actual land use of the two regions will also influence the differences in their kitchen. The Szechwan region is mountainous jungle, with little arable land for agriculture. The Hunan region, however, is a land of rolling hills and slow rivers. Because of its fertile hills and valleys, the Hunan region access to an amazing variety of ingredients not available to Szechwan chefs. Fish and meat are both much more common in Hunan cooking, as well as many vegetables.

The land and the related strains, also concentrate the Hunan more time for food. Hunan cooking features complex and time-consuming preparation. Many dishes begin their preparation on the day before they are served, and can marinated, then steamed or smoked and then fried or stewed before they reach the table. The same attention paid to the preparation of ingredients, and it is said that Hunan cuisine is most pleasing to the eyes of all Chinese cuisines. The shape of a food product in a particular recipe is almost as important as the presence in the Last Judgement. Hunan chefs are specialists with the knife – carving fanciful shapes of vegetables and fruits that are used in the preparation of meals, or present.

Hunan cuisine is known for its use of chilli, garlic and shallots, and to emphasize the use of sauces, the flavor of the ingredients of a court noted. It is not for a Hunan dish on the contrasts of flavors play unusual – hot and sour, sweet and sour, sweet and hot – hot, spicy and deliciously sweet at the same time. Hunan chefs are known for their ability to found a symphony of taste to create with their ingredients. A classic example is Hunan spicy beef with vegetables, from which the meat is marinated first night in a citrus and ginger mixture, then washed and rubbed with chili paste before they cooked in a pungent brown sauce. The end result is a meat, melting is tender on the tongue and changes flavor even if you enjoy it.

More and more restaurants are to be clarified at the beginning of the two kitchens and Hunan cuisine come into its own. Crispy duck and Garlic-Fried green beans take their place alongside Kung Pao Chicken and Double Cooked Pork. But there is no clash between the two for a place of honor in the Chinese regional cuisines – rather, there are only winners – the guests who have the pleasure of both samples.