A Classic Example of Sichuan’s Mala Flavor Profile

This recipe is part of our series on fùhé wèi (复合味), Sichuan’s 20+ complex flavors. For more details about this flavor combination, along with other recipes that exemplify this profile, visit our new Mala Wei index page. (Other fuhe wei combinations can be found through the menu.)

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In Sichuan, the málà (麻辣, numbing-spicy) flavor combination is ubiquitous. Walk into a neighborhood restaurant, and chances are good that at least one dish on the table will feature the mix of chili and Sichuan pepper that forms the base of this flavor. Living abroad, I’ve become accustomed to the fact that mala is the flavor profile that foreigners (and people in other parts of China) most closely associate with Sichuan food. In the U.S. and Europe, the most famous Sichuan dishes, like mapo tofu and hot pot, all feature this flavor combination. 

Mala is one of Sichuan’s 20-plus fuhe wei, or “complex flavors”—flavor combinations that form the base of many of the province’s dishes—and it is by far the most iconic of the bunch. The tongue-tingling má (numbing) quality comes from Sichuan pepper, which has grown in Sichuan since ancient times; red peppercorns are the most commonly used (sometimes in combination with green peppercorns), and can be used whole, ground into powder or simmered in oil (which takes up the peppercorns’ flavor and numbing quality). The là (spicy) quality comes from dried red chili (or an ingredient that contains chili, like douban jiang or red chili oil), which came from the Americas in the 16th or 17th centuries. Over time, cooks in Sichuan evolved a unique cooking style that combined these two ingredients into a masterful new flavor profile, and by the middle of the 20th century they had created many of the dishes we now identify with this flavor, including water-boiled beef (shuǐzhǔ niúròu, 水煮牛肉) and Chongqing hot pot (huǒguō, 火锅). 

When I returned home this past winter, I realized just how many of my meals with family and friends revolved around mala, from grilled fish and hot pots (including fish, frog, and braised chicken with taro variations) to Sichuan-style barbecue and stir-fries.  

Mala wei is also frequently employed in cold dishes—salads, starters and sides typically served at room temperature. One classic mala cold-dressed dish that I often enjoy when I’m home is fūqī fèipiàn (夫妻肺片), which usually translates, amusingly, to husband and wife lung slices. The story of this dish dates to the 1930s, when a husband-and-wife team, Guo Chaohua and Zhang Tianzheng, sold dressed beef offal from a Chengdu street stall. They worked with inexpensive cuts that others overlooked, cleaning and braising them meticulously before slicing and tossing them in a chili oil dressing. 

While the name of the dish contains the term “lung slices” (that’s the “feipian” part), there’s no lung in it. Instead, this dish consists of thinly sliced beef and beef offal, which can include tripe, heart, tongue and head skin. Some historians suggest that the dish carries this name because lung was once included as an ingredient but was later abandoned because of its spongy texture. Other sources I’ve seen claim the dish was originally called “discarded slices” (废片), but the name shifted, through homophony, to “lung slices” (肺片). Either way, the dish endures and is one of the most popular cold dishes in Sichuan. 

I’ve had many plates of fuqi feipian in my life. Some were exquisite, sliced paper-thin and served draped over celery with luscious red oil dripping into every bite. Others were more rustic, with thicker slices that were just tossed together in a stainless-steel bowl. It’s a dish that belongs as much to banquets as it does to the streets. Locals like to get their feipian from the markets. At Yulin Market in Chengdu, one of the longest lines forms in front of Ma’s Halal Slices (马记清真肺片), where people queue to buy beef offal, dressed in a house-made mala sauce, by weight so they can take it home to serve alongside stir-fries and rice.

Choosing and Preparing Meat for Fuqi Feipian

Technically, the preparation for this dish is straightforward: You braise the beef and offal in a lightly seasoned stock, cool them thoroughly, cut them into thin slices, and dress them in a mala sauce built on chili oil. The challenge in this dish, if you live outside of China, lies in sourcing its ingredients. In Berlin, where I now live, offal like tongue and tripe are hard to find and must be pre-ordered from a butcher; they are also no longer the inexpensive cuts they once were. Although I do enjoy the mixed textures you get from a dish that includes the shank, tripe and tongue served together, whether you can include all three cuts comes down to whether you can access beef offal at a reasonable price. If not, you can use just the beef shank meat (which is easier to source). The ratio of the three ingredients is also flexible: I used half shank and half offal (mixing equal parts of tongue and tripe) in the recipe below, but you can use more shank or more offal, if you like. 

All the cuts are braised in a light, spiced-infused stock called bái lǔ(白卤), or “white braise,” rather than the more commonly seen hóng lǔ (红卤) braising liquid with soy sauce or sugar caramel. Sichuan pepper, cassia bark (gui pi) and star anise (ba jiao) form this stock’s backbone; additional aromatics such as Chinese black cardamom (smoked cao guo/tsao ko), fennel seed or white cardamom (bai dou kou) can be added to deepen the aroma. Salt is crucial here; the broth should taste a bit salty. I add enough salt to equal about one percent of the total weight of the beef and offal, to ensure that it penetrates the big chunks of meat. 

In restaurants, the beef used for this dish is often sliced into paper-thin pieces, a skill that can take years to master. For home cooks, there’s no need to stress too much about getting it that thin. Let the beef shank cool completely and use a very sharp knife to slice it as thinly as possible. The pieces will still taste nice even if the slices are a little thicker.

Adding the Mala Flavor Profile to Fuqi Feipian

This dish exemplifies the way that the mala flavor is often used in cold dishes. For meat dishes, the protein is usually braised in a spiced stock until tender, cooled and then dressed with mala sauce just before serving. This sauce is typically composed of chili oil, soy sauce, ground Sichuan pepper (or pepper oil), salt and sugar (as opposed to hot mala dishes, such as mapo tofu, which often use dried chilies or chili flakes). Frequently, a splash of stock is added to create a cohesive dressing. In many cities in Sichuan, you’ll find delicatessens selling this style of cold-dressed dishes (liángbàn cài, 凉拌菜) using ingredients like chicken, pork, rabbit and tofu products.

This sauce is also a common dressing for crunchy vegetables like radish, celtuce or carrots. The vegetable is normally thinly sliced or julienned, and the moisture is drawn out with salt before it is tossed in the dressing. 

For more delicious cold dishes that feature mala flavor, see Taylor’s Sichuan Cucumber Three Ways: Hot-and-Sour, Mala and Sesame (Paihuanggua), Heartbreak Jelly Noodles (Shangxin Liangfen, 伤心凉粉) and Mouthwatering Sichuan Cold Chicken (Kou Shui Ji, 口水鸡).