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Pousses de bambou fermentées

What it is

Shredded shoots are packed with salt and left to ferment in their own liquid for weeks, and the p-cresol that builds up is what gives the Liuzhou style its barnyard reek - the smell most people first meet in a bowl of luosifen. Guizhou ferments the same shoot with chilli and Sichuan pepper for something sharper and cleaner.

In the kitchen

Drain, rinse, then dry-fry the shreds until the pan goes quiet before adding any fat: the water they hold otherwise stews everything and the smell stays raw. Open the jar away from the room you eat in.

Goes with

Pork Chili pepper Garlic Fish sauce Spring onion Rice Sichuan pepper Peanut

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