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1
Combine the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, grated ginger, five spice, and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl. Add the beef matchsticks and mix thoroughly. Leave to marinate. Then remove the beef and pat each piece completely dry with paper towel — no surface moisture should remain before coating.
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2
Toss the dried beef in cornstarch in batches, shaking off all excess. The coating must be thin and even across every strip; any thick patches will turn doughy rather than crisp in the fry.
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3
Heat the oil to 160 °C. Lower the coated beef into the oil in small batches — do not crowd the vessel. Fry until cooked through and the coating is set but not yet deeply coloured. Remove and drain. This first fry cooks the beef; the crust will be pale and without significant crunch — that is correct at this stage.
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4
Raise the oil temperature to 190 °C. Return the beef in batches for the second fry. This is where the dish lives or dies: the high heat drives out residual moisture and shatters the crust to an intense, lasting crispness that will survive the final wok toss. The strips are ready when they are deeply golden and audibly crisp when lifted. Drain on a rack.
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5
Bring a wok to smoking point with a small measure of the frying oil. Add the Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilli pieces and bloom them in seconds — the oil must be hot enough that the aromatics sizzle and release fragrance immediately on contact. Add the sesame seeds and spring onion and toss once.
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6
Add the fried beef to the wok. Toss briefly — no more than is needed to coat the strips in the aromatic oil. A long toss allows moisture from the aromatics to penetrate the crust and the crispness is lost. Serve at once while the crunch is intact.