P
Chinese · Chengdu
Fuqi Feipian: Husband and Wife Beef
Fuqi feipian — "husband and wife's beef offal" — is a classic Chengdu cold dish: thinly sliced beef (sirloin or brisket) and beef offal (tripe, tendon, heart) combined with a complex sauce of chilli oil, Sichuan peppercorn, sesame paste, and black vinegar, served at room temperature. The technique requires each protein component to be cooked to its specific correct texture before the entire preparation is chilled and dressed.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the proteins
400 g
beef brisket or shank
in one piece
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 g
honeycomb tripe
cleaned
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 g
beef tendon
trimmed
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 g
beef heart
trimmed of fat and sinew
Origin · PeruNot yet stocked in British Columbia
For the master stock / spiced water
2 litres
water
Your own market
4
spring onions
bruised
Your own market
30 g
2 tsp
Sichuan peppercorns
whole
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2
star anise
Your own market
1
cassia bark or cinnamon stick
broken
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
15 g
salt
Your own market
For the dressing
3 tbsp
chilli oil
with its sediment
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tbsp
sesame paste
stirred smooth
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
ground roasted Sichuan peppercorn
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tbsp
black vinegar
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2 tbsp
soy sauce
1 tsp
caster sugar
Your own market
For the garnish
150 g
celery
strings removed, cut into 5 cm batons
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Combine the water, spring onions, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cassia bark, and salt in a large pot and bring to the boil. Add the beef brisket or shank and simmer over a moderate heat until just tender — a chopstick or skewer should meet slight resistance, not pass freely. Remove and cool completely in the strained liquid.
2
Simmer the cleaned honeycomb tripe in a fresh batch of the same spiced water until tender but still possessed of a distinct chew — pressing a piece between two fingers, it yields but springs back slightly. Remove and cool in the liquid.
3
Cook the beef tendon in the spiced water for up to 3 hours. This is where the dish lives or dies: the tendon must become completely gelatinous and translucent throughout — held to the light, it is glassy with no remaining white opacity — yet it must not collapse. Remove and cool; it will set to a firm, sliceable jelly.
4
Simmer the beef heart in the spiced water until cooked through and firm. Cool in the liquid. All components must be fully cold before slicing — residual warmth causes tearing.
5
Slice all chilled components against the grain to a uniform 2–3 mm thickness. The set tendon should yield clean, translucent slices; the brisket should separate into distinct fibres; the tripe should hold its honeycomb pattern without curling.
6
Blanch the celery batons briefly in boiling water — no more than 30 seconds — then refresh immediately in cold water. Drain. The celery must remain vivid green and audibly crisp when snapped.
7
Whisk together the chilli oil with sediment, sesame paste, ground roasted Sichuan peppercorn, black vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar until the sesame paste is fully incorporated and the dressing is uniform. Taste: it should be simultaneously numbing, hot, sour, savoury, and faintly sweet — no single note dominant.
From the canon — Sichuan peppercorn (huā jiāo — flower pepper) — the dried berry of Zanthoxylum simulans or Zanthoxylum bungeanum — is not a pepper (Piper nigrum) but a citru… Sichuan Peppercorn: The Numbing Spice Surveyed →
8
Arrange the sliced proteins and celery on a serving plate at room temperature. Spoon the dressing over, ensuring every component is coated. The finished dish should carry the vivid red gloss of the chilli oil and present the full range of textures — gelatinous tendon, chewy tripe, firm brisket, crisp celery — in every portion.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — All four proteins sourced from a single grass-fed animal; Sichuan peppercorns imported from the Hanyuan county harvest; hand-ground sesame paste; aged Zhenjiang black vinegar.
02
Estate — Butcher-sourced tripe and tendon, cleaned to order; single-origin Sichuan chilli oil pressed in-house; good-quality Chinese black vinegar.
03
Market — Pre-cleaned honeycomb tripe from a reputable Asian butcher or market; commercially produced Sichuan chilli oil with visible sediment; standard sesame paste.
04
House — Supermarket brisket; pre-packaged tripe; a blended chilli oil; any black vinegar. The dish is achievable but the layered complexity of the dressing will be diminished.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. Brisket meets slight resistance to a skewer — it yields but does not fall apart.
◇Touch. Tripe pressed between fingers yields and springs back — tender but definitively chewy, never soft.
◇Sight. Tendon held to light is uniformly glassy and translucent, with no remaining white or opaque core.
◇Sight. Chilled set tendon produces clean, intact slices at 2–3 mm without tearing or crumbling.
◇Sound. Refreshed celery snaps cleanly and audibly — no bend or limpness.
◇Sight. Dressed plate shows a vivid red-oil gloss over every component, with no pooling of undissolved sesame paste.
◇Where it lives or dies. The tendon must cook to a fully gelatinous, translucent state — glassy throughout with no remaining white opacity — while retaining the structural integrity to slice cleanly when cold.
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VI
What to Pour
A lightly oxidative, off-dry Riesling from Alsace or the Clare Valley — its residual sweetness moderates the chilli heat while its acidity mirrors the black vinegar. Alternatively, cold Shaoxing rice wine served straight, which shares the dish's own aromatic register. A crisp, unflavoured Chinese lager is the everyday pairing.
The whole pairingPillar VII
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Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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Sourced through Provenance