Beef in Chili Sauce (Fuqi feipian)

Beef in Chili Sauce is one of the most popular Sichuan dishes—beautiful in color, soft and tender, aromatic and spicy.

Many people used to translate this dish word for word as "Husband and wife's lung slice," which, unfortunately, tends to terrify diners and make this dish not so popular among foreigners. A more appropriate translation would be "Beef in Chili Sauce".

Beef in Chili Sauce is often served as a cold dish. It is made of thinly sliced beef, beef lung/stomach/tongue, and a generous amount of spices, including Sichuan pepper corns and Chili. Therefore, the desired taste should be both spicy and mouth-numbing. Some people refuse to eat animal viscera, either due to cultural conceptions or they think it is associated with junk food. As a result, Fuqi feipian has lost a lot of customers. But in fact, there are no lung slices in this dish at all.

History of Beef in Chili Sauce

The original meaning of Fuqi Feipian (夫妻废片) would be literally translated as "Married Couple's Offal Slices." The meaning of Fei in this name is not lung, but "waste parts or offal." However, Fei or "waste parts or offal" has a negative meaning in Chinese, so the couple simply changed the character "废" to "肺" (lung) since they have the same pronunciation in Chinese. In addition, when it comes to Chinese food, lung always means pork lung. Therefore, the exact translation would be "Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce".

The legend of Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce dates back to the 1930s. There is a romantic story of the origin of this famous Sichuan dish.

In the 1930s, there was a married couple in Chengdu famous for making beef slices. The husband Guo Zhaohua and his wife Zhang Tianzheng were very particular about the beef slices they made, and often experimented with new ingredients. As a result, their beef slices had a distinct taste which was well-received by customers, so that no one could resist the charming smell in their street. However, mischievous children sometimes would pull a prank on the couples and stick a paper notes that says "Married Couple's Offal Slices" (Fuqi Feipian) on their backs. And due to this, people would yell the words out. Later on, a merchant tried the married couple's beef slices and was so satisfied he gave them a gold-lettered plaque that read "Fuqi feipian" (夫妻废片), and the name has stuck ever since.