🍽️ Mapo Tofu

Numbling, spicy, hot and aromatic tofu.

Mapo Tofu is the most famous home-style dish of Chengdu, Sichuan, and a benchmark of the 'numbing-spicy' Sichuan flavor. Soft tofu is cooked with minced beef or pork, Pixian broad-bean paste, Sichuan peppercorn and garlic sprouts, aiming for eight qualities: numb, spicy, hot, aromatic, crisp, tender, fresh and lively. The dish glows red-oil bright, the tofu tender but intact, the minced meat crisp, as peppercorn tingle and bean-paste heat intertwine into a steaming, addictive bite. It is stir-fried quickly over hot oil and thickened so the sauce clings to each cube. Inexpensive and superb with rice, it appears in nearly every Chengdu eatery, a regular on family tables and the ideal first Sichuan dish for visitors — a hugely satisfying bowl over steamed rice.