Xiang cuisine (湘菜, Hunan cuisine) is considered by many to be the spiciest of China's Eight Great Cuisines — and unlike Sichuan's mala (numbing-spicy), Hunan's heat is pure and direct. Hunan does not use Sichuan peppercorn; instead it relies on the searing, direct heat of fresh chillis (both fresh and pickled), smoked preparations, and a distinctive preference for sour and smoky flavour notes alongside the chilli heat. Hunan is the home province of Mao Zedong, and several iconic Hunan dishes — the red-braised pork (hong shao rou), the steamed fish head with chopped chilli (duo jiao yu tou) — are associated with Mao's preference for strongly flavoured food.
Defining flavour characteristics of Hunan cooking: (1) Direct chilli heat from fresh chillis (both the thin-skinned Xiangtan variety and various dried varieties), pickled chillis (pao jiao), and fermented chillis. (2) Sour notes from fermented vegetables, Chinkiang vinegar, and pickled preparations. (3) Smoke from the smoked meats (la rou) that are a Hunan specialty. (4) Garlic — used in much greater quantities than in most other Chinese regional cuisines. (5) Fermented black beans (douchi) appear more frequently in Hunan than in Sichuan cooking. Key techniques: Dry-pot cooking (gan guo, 干锅) — distinct from Sichuan gan guo — a technique of cooking vegetables and meat with minimal liquid in a dry wok over sustained heat. The moisture of the ingredients themselves becomes the cooking medium. Smoking (xun, 熏) — Hunan smoked meats are wind-dried and smoke-dried over wood chips or rice husks.
Fuchsia Dunlop, Every Grain of Rice (2012); Fuchsia Dunlop, Invitation to a Banquet (2023)