Chengdu’s spicy Sichuan food is so good, it converts a self-proclaimed Chinese-food hater

On a visit to Chengdu, in Sichuan province, Ian Neubauer has a culinary epiphany. His disdain for Chinese cuisine turns into a devotion to all things spicy

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Sichuan pork stir fry (left) and Mapo tofu with Sichuan numbing peppers (right in Chengdu, China. On a visit to Chengdu, in Sichuan province, a writer has a culinary epiphany. Photo: Ian Neubauer

Published: 11:15am, 10 Dec 2023

I’ve never been a fan of Chinese food. With the exception of the Peking duck sold by speciality shops in the Chinatowns of cities such as Sydney and Bangkok, I find it to be greasy and tasting like wok.

A recent road trip from Kunming, in southern China, to the Tibetan capital Lhasa only reinforced my prejudice. From slimy mushrooms to stir-fried pork and chicken dishes full of gristle and bones, to rubbery steamed pork buns that could be used as putty to fill in holes in walls, the food was unappetising and repetitive.

And then I visited Chengdu.

The provincial capital is the birthplace of world-famous Sichuan cuisine, and the revered “numbing” pepper, a corn plant containing a molecule called hydroxy-alpha-sanshool that temporarily numbs the lips and tongue.

Guangdong or Southern Cantonese-style duck with rice in Chengdu, China. Photo: Ian Neubauer

In 2011, Chengdu was added to Unesco’s City of Gastronomy list alongside other food hotspots such as Ostersund, in Sweden, and Colombia’s Popayán. If there is anything good to eat in China, Chengdu would be the place to find it.

With wide avenues lined by even-wider footpaths, gleaming skyscrapers, plentiful greenery and parks, this whisper-clean city of 20 million is renowned in China for its more relaxed way of life.