[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Well, having taken colleagues to lunch at a Sichuan joint here in Shanghai today, I have to agree with MM. Taiwan gongbao jiding is far superior than anything I’ve ever had on the mainland. Sichuan food is my favourite, and as very much a regular tripper to China, the only positive I see is more gall when it comes to using Sichuan peppers.
I think there’s probably some very logical explanation for how China and Taiwan gongbao differs, most likley a snapshot in time. Here in China the idea seems to be to merely fry up some chicken, peanuts and chilli in a shitload of oil. In Taiwan that dried chilli is usually crispy and full of flavour, and the sauce far more concentrated and full of taste. I’d call that better cooked with undoubtedly better ingredients.
HG[/quote]
I didn’t make it to any Sichuan places while in Shanghai (I haven’t really heard any good things about Sichuan food there from any Sichuanese I know), but I did get to a hole-in-the-wall Hunan place that was excellent (I’ll get some shots up on my Flickr site shortly). I was last in Chengdu in March 2007 and the Gongbaoji I had then was superb-I think if you’re going to a place where the sauce is not complex, then you’ve gone to a bad restaurant with a poorly trained chef. I think maybe you guys just prefer the Taiwan version. My wife and I like it the Chengdu way-it’s less sweeter than what you find in Taiwan.