Last night's dinner:
Szechuan style. Szechuan is know for it's spicyness and extreme use of capsicum, chili's, spices, and peppercorn.
Front left is spicy beef soup. Big chunks of beef in spicy soup.
Front center is Pork ribs with spicy peanut sauce on them.
Front right is spicy and sour soup with tofu and fungus.
Upper left is spicy tofu soup with veggies
Upper center is spicy pork knuckle with veggies and peanut sauce.
Upper right is lotus root slices in sweet honey yoghurt.
The drinks are fresh squeezed lemon and papaya juice shakes (ice, juice, sugar as needed).
Just breathing at the table brought a sweat to my forehead. The sauces are slow cooked for days and are based mostly on peppers, peppers, and more peppers. Add those special Szechuan flower peppers that I told you about and you have a recipe that really will tear up your insides.
The lotus root is a delicous flower root that you see in a lot of dishes. Sliced like strips of cucumber, it has the same cooling effect, but the consistency of boiled potatos. It's swimming in the yoghurt for a reason. Lactic acid in milk has a neutralizing effect on capsicum (the stuff that makes peppers hot), and as any good chili eater will let you know, it is a necessity to drink milk when eating REALLY hot food. The lotus root and yoghurt are scoffed at by the guys that think they can eat hot food without it hurting them, but as any Chinaman will tell you...."eating hot food with a straight face is the sign of a strong man, but cr*pping the next day he shows his weakness through his tears." That's a true expression, although in translation it loses it's meaning....I think you get the point though.
