Eating Your Way Across China 141 Stir-fried mutton with spring onion (cong bao yang rou)—
Thinly-sliced mutton cooked till tender with sliced spring
onions in a hot wok.
Stewed chicken and mushrooms (xiao ji dun mo gu)—
Chunks of chicken cooked slowly in a clay pot with
mushrooms and potatoes. The broth is a tasty light brown
sauce that goes well with rice.
Willow of duck in a nest (ya si yao guo)—Slivers of duck
meat sautéed with cashews, onions and peppers, served
with a spicy sauce. The mixture is scooped into a nest
made of deep-fried string potatoes.
Stir-fried cabbage in sweet and sour sauce (cu liu bai
cai)—Cabbage cooked in dark brown vinegar, lightly
sweetened with sugar.
Dumplings (jiao zi)—A mainstay of northern cuisine: meat
and/or vegetable-filled dumplings that are eaten by dipping
into a sauce of garlic, soy and vinegar.
Western Sichuan: Spicy, Hot Hot Hot!!!
Sichuan pickled vegetables (pao cai)—Vegetables marinated
in vinegar, soy and hot peppers. Served alone or to accent
a dish.
Shredded chicken and green bean noodles in spicy sauce
(ji si la pi)—Chicken shreds served with sesame and chili
sauce over a bed of chilled green bean noodles.
Finely sliced pork with garlic sauce (suan ni bai rou)—
Paper-thin slices of pork served in garlic and chili sauce.
Cucumber slices in pepper and sesame oil (qiang huang
gua)—Flash-fried cucumbers accented with Sichuan
peppers, served with light chili oil. Very spicy!
Beef slices boiled in a hot sauce (shui zhu niu rou)—Beef
flash cooked in a bowl of very hot oil, chilis, onion and
coriander. There are hot rocks in the bottom of the dish
to keep the oil hot.
Spicy pork ribs (xiang la pai gu)—Deep-fried pork ribs
seasoned with a spicy coating of salt, pepper and
Sichuan pepper.
Spicy chicken with peanuts (gong bao ji ding)—Well-loved
in the West as kung pao chicken: fried chicken chunks and