The Real Mapo Tofu and other Numbing Tidbits About Sichuan Cuisine

Going to Chengdu without eating at the “Pockmark-face Lady’s” tofu restaurant is like climbing Mount Everest without taking a picture of yourself at the top. Otherwise known popularly as “Chen Mapo Tofu Restaurant” (陳麻婆豆腐川菜館), it is a must-do in the itinerary of any lover of Chinese food.

As the name suggests, Chen’s is not a tofu restaurant but a mapo tofu restaurant. Only one dish matters there, the eponymous tofu dish that has earned its rightful place on the world’s culinary map. “Mapo” literally means “pockmark-face lady.” As the story goes, a woman surnamed Chen, whose face was marred with pockmarks, sold this tofu dish from her street stand in the mid-1860s. It was just a ramshackle place to grab a quick bite, but people were so enamored by her tofu that they soon referred to it by her nickname. Mapo Tofu was scribed into culinary history ever since.

The dish features cubed soft tofu simmered in a sauce of minced beef and fermented chili-and-bean paste. A layer of red oil burbles on top, and a dusting of ground Sichuan peppercorns rounds out on top. The dish has all the classic characteristics of Sichuan cooking: hot from the chilies, numbing from the Sichuan peppercorns, fragrant from the fermented chili and bean paste, and frittery from the fried minced beef. Who said tofu is bland?

I also ordered a dish literally translated as “Onion and Pepper Chicken” (蔥椒雞; cong▪jiao▪ji). The “onion” part was pretty straightforward—large sectioned scallions. And being in Sichuan, I expected the “pepper” part to mean Sichuan peppercorns; however, I didn’t expect to find a whole sprig of fresh Sichuan peppercorns adorning the top. This was the first time I had ever seen fresh Sichuan peppercorns. In America, as you may know, they cannot be imported without being first pre-roasted.

In this dish, the peppercorns were lightly fried with onions to make a fragrant oil infusion, which was then drizzled over diced boiled chicken. On the bottom was a bed of blanched yellow (soy) bean sprouts. The combination of the sweetness of the onions and the numbingness of the peppercorns was intense and magical. Wow!

I also had some fresh yu choy stir fried with fresh red chilies. Yu choy is a green vegetable whose seeds are used to make canola oil. The fresh leaves are tender and sweet, with stems that are crunchy and a tad bitter. All around the Chengdu countryside, I saw yu choy growing in abundance, their bushy flower plumes turning the fields into flickering waves of gold.

Chen Mapo Tofu Restaurant is located in central Chengdu, on Qinghualu 19.
陳麻婆豆腐川菜館 ▪ 四川成都市青華路 19號