Celebrity Author Car Chu Reflects on Hot and Spicy Chinese Cuisine (2/3)

I cannot say that the American public has fully accepted the world of hot & spicy foods, but a lot has certainly changed in recent years. Remember the craze for Tex-Mex and Southwestern cooking ten years ago, followed by Thai and Southeast Asian? These are all adventurous forays into hot & spicy cooking unthinkable back in, say, the steak-and-butter days of the 1950s. But I’ll hold off from proclaiming America as a hotbed of hot & spicy until people stop saying “hold the chili” to Gongbao Chicken. What is the secret to the success of spicy foods? Hot & spicy flavors add a certain zing to the foods that make them almost addictive. I cannot get enough of them myself. What beverages and desserts go best with these dishes? Hot & spicy foods need something cool and refreshing to counterbalance their audacious punch. Grain based alcohol such as beer works the best. I have yet found a wine that could conceivably match something like an authentic Gongbao Chicken or Water-boiled beef. I would never recommend any wine with Chinese food actually. What is usually served in a traditional meal where mainly spicy dishes are present? As far as staple are concerned, hot & spicy foods are best eaten with plain steamed rice. Lots of ice water also comes in handy, yes. What are the latest trends in Hot & Spicy cuisine that you have noticed? Sichuan cuisine in L.A. is gradually split into two camps – the Chengdu school and the Chongqing school – based on the foods of the province’s two major cities. The former is based on the local street snacking culture, whereby the dishes are in small, individualistic portions. Also, Chengdu dishes’ flavors tend to be complex, yet holding on to a unmistakably rustic character. The latter from Chongqing is an all-out assault on the tastebuds, with dishes like Water-boiled Beef and Chongqing-style Chili-and-Chicken. Chongqing claims to have the spiciest dishes and so far there has been nothing to contradict that claim. Will the rest of America pick up the Chengdu-Chongqing divide? What would be the most popular/typical favorite Hot & Spicy restaurant dishes that appeal to the American palate? If a restaurant would like to add some of these to their menu, where could they find recipes? Do you have any you would like to share? By now, the “traditional” takeout restaurants all over main street America all serve one form or another of Gongbao(Kungpao) Chicken. However, very few people have tasted the authentic thing, which is diced chicken stir-fried with roasted peanuts, dried chili, and a dash of black rice vinegar. A L.A. Sichuan chef who prides in his Gongbao Chicken has a customer complain that it was “The Worst Kungpao Chicken I Have Ever Tasted.” That to me is the state of hot & spicy dishes in America. I certainly like to see chefs explore some of the authentic Sichuan restaurants and perhaps tinker with the recipes. As a restaurant patron and lover of the cuisine, why do you think some Asian restaurants succeed? Why do they fail? I will focus this question to the Chinese rather than all Asians. I feel many Chinese restaurateurs often try to stretch their profit margins by using inferior ingredients, and also by overlooking such costs as maintaining a certain level of sanitary standards. That’s why Chinese cuisine doesn’t get the general respect as a sophisticated and artistic style of cooking, as it actually is. Places like P.F. Chang, as well as franchise restaurants based out of mainland China (like Malan Noodles and Little Sheep Hotpot), do much better because they uphold these standards persistently. On the other hand, many small restaurants fail because of poor food quality and cleanliness. You can’t make money if the restaurant is routinely closed “for remodeling” because it failed one health code or another. If you had to name the one thing Asian restaurants can do – right now – to improve their profitability, what would that be?