DaGui (大贵) Hot Dishes: Because…they are delicious too

After my Ode To Vinegar post detailing the sour cold dishes at DaGui (大贵), I shall now move onto some hot, vinegar-free but still delicious dishes. Guizhou cuisine is not at all popular outside of China – in fact I’ve never seen these dishes outside of China, but Guizhou borders Sichuan, and the cuisine often combines Sichuanese spiciness with the sourness enjoyed by the many minority groups living in this province. There are many tasty dishes, but instead of talking about the more well-known Guizhou specialties, such as sour fish soup (酸汤鱼) or the insanely delicious but less unique, such as stir-fried-deep-fried eggplant (香菜茄子), I’ll chat up the dishes I find most pleasing and surprising in flavors.

Pickled Vegetables and Deep-fried Sweet Dumpling (毕节酸菜炒汤圆）

Soup dessert dumplings (tangyuan 汤圆) are a staple on the Chinese dessert circuit. It’s a small, eyeball-sized ball made from sticky rice flour that is filled with an assortment of sweet fillings, most commonly black sesame paste or red bean paste, and boiled until cooked and served in a bowl of sugared ginger water. (Christine chronicles her adventures making them in this post.)

This dish takes this dessert dumpling, deep-fries them, then stir-fries them with salty pickled vegetables and a salty/spicy sauce. The result? This amazing taste explosion (which might actually be one too many flavors for some). The sauce and pickles are salty and sour and spicy, the glutinous rice mildly flavored, the black sesame paste a burst of sandy sweetness. This is my personal favorite…how can I not love a dish that combines so well the salty, sweet, spicy and sour all in one?

DaGui Style Ribs (大贵

The first time this dish appeared on my table, I nearly clapped my hands together in childish delight. First impression is that these ribs are enormous. Easily the length of my forearm, three giant ribs curve in a grand arch over the plate, completely smothered in a slightly spicy, crunchy mixture of pickled vegetables, peanuts, black beans and onions. When you stab into these ribs, the meat slids meltingly apart, and this dish reminds me of the tender meat from long-smoked BBQ  ribs happily combined with the tangy spiciness particular to Guizhou cuisine.

Fried Fern Green with Guizhou Bacon (腊肉炒蕨粑)

It’s not an easily identifiable food – black and brown pinky-sized logs are stirfried with some dried chilies and leeks. The brown strips are chunks of smokey and fatty cured bacon, and the black logs are strips of densely chewy glutinous cake made from bracken fern starch. Bracken (蕨菜), sometimes called fiddleheads, can be eaten stir-fried as a vegetable dish, but the glutinous cake created from the starch of the root is much more interesting. The black cake has a slightly bitter earthy taste, and is deep-fried separately before being stir-fried with the bacon. The chewiness of the glutinous fern cake matches with the chewiness of the bacon (especially the bacon fat) and it’s a lovely salty chewy dish. The downside is that you can’t eat more than a few logs here and there – afterall, it’s deep-fried gooey starchness stir-fried with fatty bacon – that’s a lot of chew, and a lot of fat. But indubitably tasty.

Lamb with Mint (薄荷羊肉)

Roast lamb with a touch of mint jelly is common enough western fare. This dish reflects that same simplicity, with a little added kick. Slices of lamb are stirfried with mint leaves and dried chilies, and then a handful of fresh mint is tossed on top. Mint and lamb is always a lovely combination – something about the overly bright flavor of mint rubs well with the  gameyness of mutton. And of course, a big dose of spicy peppers makes everything pop.

69 Daxing Hutong, off Jiaodaokou Nandajie, Dongcheng District. 东城区交道口大兴胡同69号, 东城. 86 10 6407 1800