Spicy start livens up a new year
Print Edition
Liu Zhihong, 47, came to Shanghai from Hunan Province 22 years ago, marrying a Shanghai man and living in a traditional lane-style house.
She loved her new home but couldn’t forget the spicy flavors of her origins. So she cooks specialties from her hometown to this day.
For the Spring Festival, she prepared duojiao yutou, or fish head steamed with chopped chili peppers.
Like Sichuan, Hunan is home to China’s spiciest cuisine. Duojiao, a signature dish of Hunan, uses pickled chili sauce made from fresh hot chilies. Paring the sauce with a steamed fish head is among the most famous dishes.
“Every Hunan family makes this dish on special occasions,” Liu said.
In Chinese, the pronunciation for “fish” is yu, the same as the word “surplus.” Also, red in China carries an auspicious meaning.
Liu’s secret menu is her homemade red chili sauce.
“I changed the ingredients a bit,” she admitted. “And I use peppers grown in Shanghai, which taste a little bit sweeter.”
She buys peppers when they are at their peak in autumn, seasons them with salt and seals them in jars to pickle.
Liu now works for the old Shengping neighborhood of the Nanjing Road W. When she first came to Shanghai, she sold newspapers to make money.
“I couldn’t speak the Shanghai dialect, so many people just passed me by and bought newspapers from a native competitor,” she said. “But everything has changed since then. Shanghai has become more open and inclusive.”
When she moved to the Shengping neighborhood more than 20 years ago, she, her husband and child lived in a cramped 20-meter-square room.
“We had to share a kitchen and toilet with four other families,” she said, adding that everyone was quite good at keeping “proper distances” with others.
“At that time, we all had one water meter,” she said. “I remember I was once asked to pay 5.56 yuan (87.5 US cents), and I gave the person collecting 5.6 yuan. But the person insisted on giving me 0.04 yuan in change. That was so heartening.” A district-wide overhaul of old houses has given Liu and her family their own kitchen and toilet facilities.
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