Anhui Province and Finding the Depth that Matters
This week has been eye opening, especially thanks to the new book from Fuchsia Dunlop, Invitation to a Banquet: The story of Chinese Food. I’m nearing the end of the book where she explains how difficult it is to truly cover all of the regional cuisines of China. Historically, there are only four great cuisines, each covering one of the major directions of East, West, North, and South. These four cuisines represent the major differences in the regions and give the broadest exposure to someone exploring Chinese food. In her recommendation, should you choose to pick a place to start exploring the cuisines of China, go with these. For some perspective on what I mean by historical, the current eight were originally ordained so in 1980, in an article published in the People’s Daily Newspaper. This is apparently still quite a point of contention, especially for less populous regions. Take a for a moment the Tibetan plateau. The food in this area is limited by what can grow at such high altitude and influences from neighboring areas such as India and Nepal. Dairy, especially that of yaks, is very common, whereas dairy is virtually absent from most other Chinese regions.
As I’ve started looking toward future weeks, it has become considerably more difficult to find differences in the 8 major cuisines that are contrasting enough to make the posts interesting to someone who maybe isn’t quite as into Chinese food at that deep of a level. As a result, I’ve made the decision to shorten my exploration of Chinese cuisines to the four historical cuisines, with the exclusion of the one we will explore today. Serendipitously, I’ve already covered three of them, Sichuan, Guangdong, and Shandong. Next week we will be tackling our last major region, Jiangsu Province. In the meantime, let’s learn about an area that is quite different than anything we’ve looked at thus far.
This week we will be taking a little break from cooking as we explore Anhui Province. It isn’t that I didn’t want to cook my way through the region, but Anhui is special in that its cuisine (Hui) is hyper-local, with a strong emphasis on wild herbs and ingredients. As a result, even though it is considered one of the eight great cuisines of China, it isn’t well known outside of China. Don’t expect to see a Hui restaurant near you any time soon.
Hui cuisine tends toward salty, fresh, and seasonal. What sets Hui cuisine apart is not just its flavors but its philosophy. Here, cooking is more than sustenance, it's a dialogue with nature, a respect for the rhythm of the seasons, and a celebration of simplicity. It's a reminder that sometimes, the most profound flavors come from the humblest of origins.
I want to highlight some of the famous dishes from this region. The first is fried hairy tofu. Check out this video from Blondie in China, where she tries the tofu in a picturesque town. Tofu is fermented for seven days until it begins to sprout moldy hairs. While it sounds off-putting, once cooked, the hairs aren’t visible and the flavor developed through the fermentation shines through. It’s generally served topped with chili sauce and freshly chopped cucumber.
The second dish is stinky Mandarin fish. The history of this dish dates back to when fishermen would fish on the Yangtze River. They would keep their catch fresh by rubbing it with salt and putting it in their wooden buckets during the weeklong trip home. While the fish remained fresh, the skin developed a certain smell. While the modern version of this dish doesn’t require fishermen to carry the fish around for a week, it’s still made rather traditionally by salting the fish and cramming them into a wooden bucket to ferment for a week. It is then fried with garlic, ginger, soy, and chilis. Here is a little more information on the process, from CGTN (China Global Television Network).
Lastly, I want to leave you with one more resource if you want to take your exploration of Hui cuisine further. Travel China Guide has a great page on Hui cuisine, as well as the other great cuisines of China. They highlight a few other dishes, such as Steamed Partridge and Stewed Bamboo Shoots of Wenzheng Mountain. The region looks breathtaking. Should I get the opportunity to visit China in the future, this is definitely on my list.
Before I sign off for the week, I want to give you a preview of some other posts coming to Home Cooked Happiness. While I love savory cooking, I also love pastry and confections. I have taken bread baking and pastry courses and worked from some books over the years, but never with any level of real dedication. In deciding that I wanted to double down on Home Cooked Happiness and my culinary education, I decided to also spend this year being much more intentional about my study of pastry. We’re going to be working through a few books, but primarily The Professional Pastry Chef and Chocolates and Confections. Starting this weekend, I’m taking my first dive into chocolate. I’ll be sharing the results of making my first chocolate bars next week! Stay tuned to see if they turn our beautifully or as a beautiful disaster.