Whether it's a fly restaurant deep in the alley or a star-rated restaurant selected in the Michelin guide, the only way to test whether a Sichuan restaurant is authentic on the streets of Chengdu is to order a Sichuan-style cooked pork.

In Chengdu, Sichuan, in a Sichuan restaurant with the signboard of "Sichuan-style pork loved by three generations", chef Wang stepped up his display of Sichuan-style Sichuan-style pork. China News Service reporter Zhang Lang photo

Chengdu, the first "World Food Capital" in Asia awarded by the United Nations, is a mutual achievement of "delicious mouth" and craftsmen. Diners will not be stingy with an hour or two's journey. They will go through the city to find a crispy pot helmet with red oil ears, or a dish of mom's rabbit head that has just been fished out of a spicy pot. Naturally, there are also many chefs who have devoted their lives to a dish.

In a Sichuan restaurant with the signboard of "Sichuan style pork that three generations love to eat", chef Wang Qiang is demonstrating the practice of Sichuan style pork for his disciples.

In Chengdu, Sichuan, a chef shows the ingredients of fried Sichuan style pork in a Sichuan restaurant with the signboard of "Sichuan style pork loved by three generations". China News Service reporter Zhang Lang photo

See the square's two-knife-leg meat with ginger onion, cooking wine and pepper cooked slowly until it is seven minutes cooked, then take it out, cut it into copper-thick slices and stir-fry. Sweet red soy sauce and Pixian watercress endow the soul. In the rising fireworks, the meat slices are curled into a "lamp nest" shape at high temperature, and then sprinkled with a handful of crispy garlic seedlings, adding a refreshing meaning to this oily dish ..

"The first dish I learned was Sichuan style pork, and I was beaten for the first time because the frying of Sichuan style pork was slow ..." Wang Qiang, who has been "dead" with Sichuan style pork for 30 years, still collects the recipes of Sichuan style pork handwritten by the old headmaster. In his view, cooked pork is easy to learn but difficult to refine. In addition to strictly mastering the cooking temperature in cook the meat, the cooking process needs to be controlled in about two minutes like flowing water, and the meat with two knives (referring to the part near the hind legs that cuts off the pig's tail, because it is the second knife, commonly known as the meat with two knives) is forced to be soft, glutinous and burnt, and then melted into slag at the entrance.

In Chengdu, Sichuan, Wang Kaifa (right), a master of Sichuan cuisine, is preparing to stir-fry two pieces of Sichuan cuisine in a Sichuan restaurant with the signboard of "Sichuan cuisine that three generations love to eat". China News Service reporter Zhang Lang photo

"Fragrant, fat but not greasy" is the comment of Dunlop, a British food writer, on Sichuan cuisine. She also praised China people for "mastering the art of cooking fat".

This "mastery" is not only reflected in the production, but also in the selection of materials. In Wang Qiang's view, the reason why pork belly is cooked with two knives instead of pork belly is because the latter is more suitable for steamed pork and braised pork, while the former is more suitable for the "quick attack" of cooked pork.

With the changes of the times, the ingredients of Sichuan style pork have long been not limited to garlic seedlings. Skinny bark, crispy rice, potatoes, peas, okra, dried bean curd, etc. can all be put into the pot, dancing with the two-knife meat slices. A small shop in the southern suburb of Chengdu, which specializes in Sichuan style pork, is very popular with diners because the chef has fried 108 Sichuan style pork with different flavors.

In Chengdu, Sichuan, chef Wang Qiang (middle) is showing the skills of frying Sichuan style pork in a Sichuan restaurant with the signboard of "Sichuan style pork loved by three generations". China News Service reporter Zhang Lang photo

"If you strictly follow the earliest recipes, you can't eat them." Wang Kaifa, a master cook in China, said that Sichuan cuisine has undergone great changes from raw materials to kitchen utensils for decades, and generations of chefs have been constantly exploring improvements, such as putting the cooked pork in a tableware with fire to avoid losing its best flavor due to the temperature drop. All kinds of innovation in keeping integrity are rooted in the "diet code" branded in China people's hearts for thousands of years-never tire of eating refined food, never tire of eating fine food.

Of course, the reason why Sichuan Cuisine can become the first dish of Sichuan cuisine is not only delicious, but also because the happiness on the tip of the tongue carries the collective memories of Sichuan people.

In Chengdu, Sichuan, chef Wang Qiang (middle) shows his freshly cooked Sichuan Cuisine in a Sichuan restaurant with the signboard "Sichuan Cuisine Loved by Three Generations". China News Service reporter Zhang Lang photo

In order to welcome astronaut Ye Guangfu to end his 183-day space trip, Ye Guangfu's sister Ye Yadan specially cooked Sichuan style pork in her hometown of Chengdu. "Sichuan-style pork is also called' guomenxiang'. When I was a child, whoever fried Sichuan-style pork could smell it in the whole building. Occasionally, I bit a lobster sauce, and my taste buds couldn't help but plan a big meal under the stimulation of the sauce." Ye Yadan recalled that when he was a child, he only cooked Sichuan style pork at home on holidays. After the meat dishes were finished, the soup was left with noodles and rice, which was another delicious food.

Born in the rivers and lakes, Sichuan-style pork can also enter the room and spread all over the world.

Yang Xiaocheng, Vice President of the Second Council of China Cuisine Association, went to the United States in 1980s to cook in the legendary Chinese restaurant new york Rongyuan. In the view of the second-generation inheritor of the non-legacy "Chengdu Sichuan Cuisine Cooking Skills", people's tastes are essentially a habit, and everyone has their own Sichuan Cuisine.