Cooking School II, Friday, October 10

Today's class was at 4:00p.m. at the Baguo Buyi, an upscale restaurant whose name roughtly translates to "The Sichuan Kingdom old clothes". It specializes in traditional Sichuan folk recipes. There are perhaps 10 restaurants in this chain throughout China, but the one here is the flagship of the lot. There were eight students this time: an Australian couple who are teaching school here on a two-year contract, Hugo, an American journalist for the Wall Street Journal who is stationed in Hong Kong (but here on a visit); Babs, whose husband works for the same company as mine (I had met her briefly once before); Heidi, who is taking a year's leave from her job as psychologist while her husband studies Chinese at Sechuan University; Evan (a stylish young man from Chengdu who speaks excellent English, and Oliver, whom I believe is German. Taylor and Rose were both there.

The restaurant has done cooking demonstrations before, but not with hands-on. They had to change some things around at the last minute, but all in all they handled evertthing very elegantly and professionally. We were taken to a private L-shaped room, with round tables filling the two legs of the L, and rectangular work tables and a portable cooking station in the central part.

We watched the preparation of three classic dishes:

1) Strange-flavored chicken. The chef used his cleaver to carve thin slices off of a cooked chicken leg-thigh. It was substantially larger than any chicken I had seen in the stores here and with a darker-colored meat. We were told that this was an organic chicken, which had been allowed to live a year, rather than only two months like the force-fed chickens in factories. He then sliced an onion (midway in size between our green onions and a leek) in two, then cut eat piece into thin slices at a diagonal. In a bowl he mixed up a sauce using chili oil, fragrant vinegar, ground Sichuan peppers, chicken powder, sesame paste, salt, and other ingredients. He mixed in the chicken and onions and it was complete - except for presentation. He place it in one corner of a square black platter, then arranged a green onion with two rose petals in the opposite corner to make a garnish. The sauce was pungent, and the chicken delicious.

2) Twice-cooked pork. The smoked fatty pork belly we used looked a lot like bacon; it ws at least half fat. The chef sliced it thin, then cooked it in about an inch of oil in the wok, on not too high a heat so it wouldn't burn. He added in ginger, garlic, chili bean paste (dopa), black bean paste, sliced garlic leeks (they tasted a lot like green onions), a little bit of sugar, and some MSG. We winced a bit at the latter ingredient, but that's how they prepare it. Everything was cooked together for a few minutes then placed on a platter to test. It was good, though I preferred the chicken.

3) Gan bian si ji dou - the green bean dish I've had several times and enjoyed. The local people believe that green beans are bad for you if not cooked thoroughly, so they deep fat fry them before stir-frying them. Heidi commented that she has made this dish by coating the beans lightly with oil and roasting them in the oven instead. After the beans were mostly cooked, the contents of the wok were poured through a strainer so that the spices for the beans could be cooked. The included minced pork, chopped scallions, soy sauc, ginger, salt, MSG, and other ingredients. The beans were then mixed in for a final few minutes before it was served. This is one of my favorite dishes so far, and I was interested in seeing how it is prepared.

Then it was our time to cook. Another cooking station was rolled in, and we were divided into two groups. Mine started with slicing the chicken for the Strange-flavored chicken. She sliced like a pro. I had a harder time at first; I'm not used to cutting with a cleaver, and I'm also accustomed to duller knives that require some sawing action. The chef told me to stand with my feet further together to have a more stable stance. He positioned my hands on the meet so my knuckles were against the knife with my fingertips curled in. I could slice more finely like that without having to worry about slicing my fingers as well. In making the sauce, we omitted the MSG and added more vinegar, resulting in a more tangy sauce. I liked it better than the original - although both were excellent.

Between the two workstations, we made four more plates of food to sample - and we still had a full meal to consume! Oliver, Evan, and Babs had to leave, so we were down to seven people.

We were ushered into a large room filled with round tables, each holding a maximum of ten, with a large revolving glass "Lazy Susan" in the middle. Taylor said that she had left the menu to the restaurant so that we could try out some of their specialties. Rose explained to us what each dish was. The dishes kept coming. Most of it was food that I am glad to have sampled, and would eat again if served, but will not go out of my way to order.

All the dishes were elegant presentations of folk food. We started out with a small plate of what looked like shriveled pieces of chicken (or brains), but was boiled walnuts over a bed of marinated mushrooms. As I am very fond of nuts, this was one of my favorite dishes of the evening. I can't remember everything we had; there was just too much of it. There was a stack of rectangular slices of something beige with the consistency of firm jello (tofu of a type) with a salty sauce and nuts on top; it was quite good, but hard to pick up with chopsticks. There was a pitcher full of a cold marinade with several dozen slender wooden sticks, each holding a piece of fungus or brocoli or other vegetables. There was a plate of pickled cabbage with a huge slice of fatty pork on top, duck intestines in a spicy sauce, four small brown pots with different kinds of cold meats, a full plate of splite shrimp with the tails sticking up - they were topped with what had looked like a breading, but what on closer inspection was vast amounts of chopped garlic. The ones I had a hardest time with were two wide bowls of what looked like soup; one was eel and the other fish. I scooped some of the "broth" into my bowl and discovered it was oil instead. I ate a piece of the eel, which was ok but not memorable, and called it quits.

Taylor offered leftovers to whomever among us had a kitchen at home. She commented that Chinese will traditionally leave huge amounts of food on their tables - it is a matter of face that they can provide much more than their guests can eat; the government is trying to discourage this. On our side of the room, there was a fairly large TV screen playing - thankfully silently and far enough away not to be too distracting.

At 7:00 the floor show started on a small stage in the central part of the large room. I could see it fairly well; some of the others brought their chairs around to my side of the table. It was billed as Sichuan Opera, but it was short highlights of the dancing rather than a full performance - which was fine with me, though what we saw was enjoyable. First, two young women did a dance with a lot of gymnastics, using long scarves as props. Then another young woman danced with a long-stemmed tea pot as a prop. All the dancers were wearing ornate silky jackets and pants, loose enough to allow them ease of movement. Next came a man dressed in red with a red mask (dog? lion?), holding a metal cylinder that must of contained a candle. From time to time he would hold it to his mouth, then "breathe" out a long breathe of fire. Two other masked men, holding large fans, came out and danced for a while as well.

It looked as if there would be more shows all evening long, but I was stuffed and a bit concerned about having abandoned Mark for two evenings in a row, so I bid the group farewell, thanked Taylor and Rose for a wonderful evening, and left shortly after 8:00. On the way back to the apartment, we passed through neighborhoods with many open-air restaurants filled with people. At one spot, where there was some room by a construction site, someone was singing with a microphone to a stand-up crowd of perhaps 40. As Mark has commented, Chengdu society still has a lot of the features of a pre-TV society, where people go out at night to make their own entertainment.

Taylor had mentioned Fushia Dunlop as having written the definitive book in English on Sichuan cooking. That evening I looked up her book and wedsite on the internet. She was the first foreigner to enroll in the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, which much have been quite an experience. The description of her book indicates that she tells the story of a lot of the main ingredients; I will definitely be ordering a copy. Mark will check at the office for the logistics of sending books here.

Mark was not at home when I arrived, so I assumed (correctly) that he had found friends to go out with. He arrived back about an hour later. He had gone with Robyn and Peter Samuels (our apartment neighbors) to the Bookworm, a restaurant/coffee house catering to expats, where the International Women's Group was sponsoring an informal get-together. Mark was particularly thrilled that he had got to meet Barry (whose wife Caryn had hosted the book club the previous night). Barry is a mining engineer who is looking for platinum; he has already been to many of the pegmatite sites Mark wants to visits, and is already acquainted with a number of Chinese hard rock geologists.