Mapo Doufu

Mapo doufu is among Chengdu's most famous Sichuan dishes: cubes of soft tofu cooked with minced beef (or pork), Pixian broad-bean paste, ground chili, Sichuan pepper, and oil over a fierce flame, then thickened into a glossy, red, deeply flavored sauce that is numbing, spicy, and piping hot.

By tradition a pock-marked woman surnamed Chen first made the dish in the 1860s at the Wanfu Bridge in Chengdu, and the house Chen Mapo Doufu grew from it; the dish became the emblem of Sichuan's mala flavor, and its cookery belongs to the national craft of Sichuan cuisine.

Tradition serves it bubbling hot, the surface oil locking in the numbing aroma, and there is no more authentic pairing than a bowl of plain white rice; the final dusting of ground Sichuan pepper delivers the tingling buzz unique to the cuisine.

A true mapo doufu balances numbing, spicy, hot, fragrant, crisp, and tender at once, with Chen Mapo Doufu the acknowledged standard-bearer.