Ingredients
- Eggplant
- Doubanjiang
- Garlic, ginger, and scallion
- Vinegar and sugar
- Soy, and often a little minced pork
How it is cooked
- Eggplant is fried or braised until soft.
- The sauce is the fish-fragrant combination: bean paste, pickles, sugar, and vinegar, with a lot of garlic.
- Pork, if used, is a small amount for savor, not a stew of meat.
- There is no fish in the standard dish. The name is the sauce style.
Taste
Soft, glossy, sweet, sour, and hot. The eggplant should collapse. If someone at the table hates fish, this is still not the plate to fear. If they hate chili and garlic, it is.
Possible allergens
- No fish in the classic recipe. Say that, and still ask, because names confuse kitchens too.
- Doubanjiang: broad bean and usually wheat.
- Soy sauce, which in China is often brewed with wheat.
- Pork, often.
- A shared wok or a house chili oil can add peanut, sesame, or shellfish even when the recipe does not.