Oliver Hayes
Reading the Menu, and the Map
Most Chinese food eaten in Britain arrives through a Cantonese filter: chow mein, sweet and sour, shredded beef, all built for a Saturday night takeaway. It is a wonderful tradition, but it is only one of several. Once you know roughly where a dish comes from, shopping gets easier, cooking gets bolder, and the menu in front of you stops looking like an endless list of variations on soy sauce.
So let's go region by region, with notes on how to make each one work in a British kitchen.
Sichuan: Numbing Before Burning
Sichuan cooking rests on two sensations that are easy to confuse: ma, the citrus-and-static numbing tingle of Sichuan peppercorns, and la, the heat of chillies. Together they are mala. The region also loves sweetness, salt and fermented depth, which is why the best Sichuan dishes taste layered rather than merely hot.
- Sichuan peppercorns — toast them in a dry pan until they smell floral and begin to crackle, then grind. Freshness matters far more than quantity.
- Doubanjiang — a fermented broad bean and chilli paste. Fry a spoonful in oil until the oil turns red before anything else goes in.
- Dried chillies and chilli oil — snip dried ones into short lengths for stir-fries; pour hot oil over chilli flakes for a table condiment.
Classics worth learning at home: mapo tofu, twice-cooked pork and dry-fried green beans. Start with less chilli than you think you want, then build up at the table.
Cantonese: The Art of Doing Less
Cantonese cooking, the backbone of most British Chinese takeaways, prizes freshness and restraint. Steaming, poaching and fast stir-frying are central, and the seasoning leans on light soy, oyster sauce, ginger and spring onion rather than chilli.
The best introduction is a whole fish steamed with ginger and spring onion. Ask a fishmonger to gut and scale a sea bass or bream, steam it for eight to ten minutes depending on size, tip away the watery liquid, then dress it with shredded spring onion, hot oil and a little light soy. The same method flatters British shellfish, greens and even chicken thighs.
- Light soy for seasoning, dark soy for colour — they are not interchangeable.
- Shaoxing wine for marinades and splashing into a hot wok; a dry sherry works in a pinch.
- White pepper, not black, for that clean background warmth.
Takeaway sweet and sour is a British-Cantonese invention, sweeter and stickier than anything served at home. Make it yourself, halve the sugar and lean on vinegar and tomato purée instead — it will taste far closer to the real thing.
Hunan: Sour Heat and Smoke
Hunan, inland from Guangdong, cooks with a fiercer, more direct heat than Sichuan, and without the numbing pepper. Its signature is sourness and fermentation: pickled chillies, salted vegetables, and smoked or cured pork.
Jars of chopped pickled chilli sit on the shelves of most Chinese supermarkets, and they are the shortcut to the Hunan flavour. Spoon them through a stir-fry of pork mince and garlic, steam them over a fillet of white fish, or fry them with British smoked streaky bacon in place of the traditional cured pork — the smokiness is remarkably close.
Garlic shoots are traditional for the vegetable dishes, but green beans, spring greens or Chinese chives all work. Cook them hard and fast so they keep their bite and their colour.
Northern Kitchens: Wheat, Lamb and Vinegar
Head north and rice gives way to wheat. Beijing, Shandong and Shaanxi give us dumplings, hand-pulled noodles, steamed buns and pancakes, all eaten with vinegar, garlic and chilli oil. Lamb is common, cumin is used with confidence, and the seasoning is more savoury than sweet.
- Chinkiang black vinegar — malty and mild, made for dipping dumplings.
- Sesame paste — thinned with water and soy for noodles and cold dishes.
- Cumin — toasted and crushed over lamb, whether stir-fried or roasted.
Hand-rolling dumplings is a lovely weekend project. A simple filling of pork, cabbage, ginger and spring onion will feed a household and freeze well. Cook them straight from frozen: boil until they float, then fry briefly for a crisp base.
Stocking the Larder and Cooking Across Regions
You do not need four separate cupboards. One shelf covers most regional cooking:
- Light and dark soy, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, Chinkiang vinegar
- Doubanjiang, pickled chopped chilli, fermented black beans
- Sichuan peppercorns, dried chillies, star anise, cassia bark, cumin
- Sesame oil and paste, cornflour, white pepper, plenty of garlic and ginger
Two habits will improve everything you cook. First, velvet your meat: slice it thinly, then mix with a little water, cornflour, soy and a splash of wine, and leave it for twenty minutes. It stays tender under high heat. Second, get the wok properly hot before the food goes in, and cook in batches — overcrowding steams rather than fries.
Choose one region, cook three dishes from it, and the logic behind it starts to make sense. That is also how to order better: ask which dishes the kitchen cooks with pickled chilli, or which use Sichuan pepper, and follow the answer.
