Category: Miscellaneous

DIY Mala Hotpot Scented Candle | Zoe Yang

For the Hotpot Lovers in Your Life I have never been a candle person. I truly don’t know who all these people are who happily pay $35, $80, $200 for something that goes up in flames (I write, happily paying $25, $80, $200 and more for oh-so ephemeral edible pleasures. Go figure). But that was before I came across the most perfect—PERFECT—item: the hotpot-scented candle. News: Contests & Events Malaysia Behold! How it looks just like 火锅底 (huǒguō dǐ)/hotpot base, with the chili oil layer on the bottom and the...

The Food of Sichuan at The Mala Market

Why You Need ‘The Food of Sichuan’: A Q&A With Fuchsia Dunlop

New Edition Includes the Secrets to Tianshuimian If you follow this blog or cook with products from The Mala Market, it’s a pretty safe bet that you are already a big fan of Fuchsia Dunlop, the British chef and author who pretty much single-handedly introduced the West to real Sichuan food. Her book Land of Plenty was published in the U.S. in 2001 and has reigned as the definitive English-language Sichuan cookbook ever since. But China has changed at breakneck speed since Fuchsia became the first foreigner to study at...

Chengdu Market Report: Spring in the Land of Abundance | Jordan Porter

Farmed and Foraged All talk of sensational spices—Sichuan pepper and mounds of chilis—aside, there are a lot of other factors that make Sichuan food very special. There’s the rambunctious, jovial air of celebration that turns meals into parties; there’s deep umami flavors and ferments brewing in every home; and there’s this great diversity of ingredients and techniques underneath it all. But to me, what makes Sichuan food really amazing is its focus on freshness and reliance on local ingredients, which is on ample view in a springtime Chengdu market. While...

Spicy Pickled Mustard Greens (Suancai) and the Food of Yunnan: A Q&A With Georgia Freedman

China’s Most Deliciously Diverse Province Have you noticed that there’s a new Chinese cuisine making waves in some larger American cities? Yunnan restaurants are popping up along the coasts, giving more people a chance to try the diverse dishes of the province for the first time. Home to hundreds of distinct ethnic minority groups, the food of Yunnan is a wondrous mix of Chinese and Southeast Asian influences—which alone gives you some idea of its great appeal. Fortunately for us cooks, a dedicated Yunnan cookbook has also just been published,...

Roasted Chili Eggplant (Liangban Qiezi, 凉拌茄子) from Chengdu’s Ying Garden

Great Sichuan Restaurant Recipes: Green Food vs. Red Food When people think of Sichuan food, they think of red. The three ingredients most identified with the cuisine—red chilies, red Sichuan peppercorns and red chili bean paste—present a united front of red in the bowl or plate when they are all in use. But what the West tends to forget is that Sichuan has some magnificent green food. Not just green leafy vegetables, which make up the majority of any full meal, but green chilies, green Sichuan pepper, green onions and...

Chengdu mala hot pot (mala huo guo)

How to Do Hotpot the Sichuan Way (Mala Huoguo, 麻辣火锅) | Jordan Porter

Expect Spice, Texture and Booze This week we have a dispatch from our man in Chengdu about the Sichuan hotpot experience. If at all possible you want to experience it in Chengdu or Chongqing, but he also gives some clues as to how to make mala hotpot at home. I’ll follow up soon with a recipe for the real deal. And we also have some dang-good, readymade hotpot soup bases in the Market.  By Jordan Porter—Hotpot has become the poster child for Sichuan cuisine and the intensity of its desire...

The Mala Project Is Now ‘The Mala Market Blog’

Change Is Good (in Life and Recipes) Dear friends of The Mala Project, From now on you’ll be hearing from Fongchong and me as The Mala Market. It was a tough decision to change the name of our blog, but we’ve heard from too many people that having two different “brands” is overly complicated. So we want to consolidate under one name, and there are at least two good reasons to go with “Market” instead of “Project”:  1) Having the same name as a restaurant in New York called Mala...

You Cooked It!: Sichuan Dishes by Our Readers and Shoppers

Happy Anniversary to Us The Mala Project (now The Mala Market Blog) turns three years old this month, and I am celebrating by thinking of all the dishes YOU have made from our recipes over that time. I would never have stuck with this time-consuming sideline if not for your genuine enthusiasm and support for the effort. It started out as a  labor of love, and you have made it even more so. So, a couple of weeks ago I invited readers to send me photos of dishes they’ve made...

Paocai to the People: At Chengdu Restaurants, Free Homemade Pickles Are the Standard | Jordan Porter

A Pickle a Day By Jordan Porter—Holler out “paocai,” the Chinese word for pickles, at nearly any restaurant in Chengdu and the wait staff will deliver a bowl of delicious homemade pickled veggies to your table. I say nearly, because at some places the communal pickle jar (or urn, or bucket, or box) is self-serve, and you scoop them up on your own.  Either way, a house-made pickle comes standard at every restaurant in the city. The best part? It’s free! Pickled and fermented ingredients, from the famous douban paste...

Mala Beef Jerky (Mala Niurougan): Inspired by Houston’s Mala Sichuan Bistro

Award-Winning Sichuan A few days ago, Jianyun Ye, the chef at one of my favorite Sichuan restaurants, Houston’s Mala Sichuan Bistro, was nominated for a James Beard Award as Best Chef Southwest. Two other Chinese chefs working in authentic Sichuan restaurants owned by mainland Chinese restaurateurs also got regional Best Chef nods for 2017: Ri Liu at Atlanta’s Masterpiece (which we visit frequently) and Wei Zhu of Chengdu Gourmet in Pittsburgh. Check out those locations. Not NYC, SF or LA, but Houston, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. Dare I believe that all...

Chengdu Noodles: Above and Beyond Dandanmian | Jordan Porter

The Straight-up, Lo-down on the Infinite Chengdu Noodle Varieties The Mala Project’s first-ever guest post is by Jordan Porter, owner and chief experience officer at Chengdu Food Tours. A Canadian who has lived in Chengdu since 2010, he began his culinary tour company in 2015 and has since led tours of the streets of Chengdu and the countryside of Sichuan for travelers like you and me and for food VIPs (many of whose articles you probably read, after Jordan schooled them in Sichuan cuisine). As many of you know, I also...

L.A.’s Chengdu Taste Spreads the Sichuan Love

Chengdu Taste Coming to a City Near You? We Ask the Owners When it’s silent for too long on this end, you know it means Fongchong and I have been traveling or, in this case, spending our summer in Northeast Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, America’s most progressive Chinese enclave. Without a kitchen while we play in the sun, hang with dear old friends, and Fongchong goes to summer school, we use the time off from cooking Sichuan to eat other people’s Sichuan cooking and get newly inspired....