It is said of Sichuan cuisine that 100 dishes will have 100 flavors, so why is it that when North Americans think Sichuan they think hot hot hot? As a unique style of food, Sichuan cuisine was already famous more than 800 years ago during the Southern Song Dynasty. Originally, the cuisine’s flavorings were very mild, unlike the popular dishes of today. Christine discovers flavor over heat and how the popularity of the cuisine has spread from China to Taiwan to North America.
Up Next in Confucius Was a Foodie Season 1 & 2
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S1: Ep.8—Sweet
Chinese cuisines use sugar very differently from Western cuisines, and Christine starts her comparison in Paris and Athens where she looks at how Westerners interpret ‘sweet’. Traditionally, for the Chinese, sugar is predominantly used to achieve balance, but the liberal use of sugars in South E...
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S2: Ep 1: The Salty Flavor
Most salt in Asia is produced through the evaporation of seawater in coastal areas. This episode sees Christine learning firsthand the very challenging ‘how to’ of harvesting sea salt in Thailand’s dramatically beautiful salt fields. Cushing visits the area’s most unusual market that is regularly...
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S2: Ep 2: Tea Culture, Celebration & ...
The story of tea starts in China, where legend has it that tea was discovered through leaves accidentally falling into boiling water, and continues all the way to the traditional Chinese wedding tea ceremony and the political intrigues of the American Revolution.
Christine brings along celebri...
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