While mushrooms are cooking, combine soy sauce, vinegar, tahini, sugar, chili oil (with its sediment), and broad bean chili paste in a medium bowl. Set aside. Bring 1 quart of salted water to a simmer in a medium pot and keep hot.

Fish sauce adds saltiness and umami depth, and dried red chiles add spice to these garlicky, crowd-pleasing grilled chicken wings. Plan ahead—they need to marinate for 12 hours before hitting the hot grill.

Braised eggplant with garlic sauce is a classic Sichuan dish that combines soft simmered eggplant , fermented soy beans, and a sweet, garlicky sauce. This version adds a few tablespoons of preserved mustard root and incorporates the garlic in a couple of ways. You can go with 100% eggplant if you'd like, or you can add cubes of firm silken tofu to transform this into a one-pot-meal.

Our original attempt at real-deal Chinese kung pao chicken , adapted from a recipe by a Sichuan chef working in Boston, gets its mouth-numbing heat from Sichuan peppercorns. So does the kung pao chicken from Kenji's book , based on the version he tried in Sichuan Province. This Chinese-American take, meanwhile, is much less spicy, with cubes of chicken in a thick, slightly gloppy sauce, permeated by a gentle heat. It's a quick and easy recipe, too: Just stir-fry marinated diced chicken with roasted peanuts, diced celery and peppers, ginger, and red Chinese or árbol chilies, then coat it all in a mixture of soy sauce, chicken broth, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, and cornstarch. Dinner's on the table in 30 minutes.

Return pot of water to a hard boil and add noodles. Cook, stirring regularly to prevent noodles from sticking to each other or the bottom, until barely cooked through with a springy bite, about 4 minutes. Drain, reserving 3/4 cup of cooking liquid. Add cooking liquid to bowl with sauce and stir to combine.

"There are usually many components to juggle; is the dish light or heavy, is the spice character low or aggressive, is the heat character mild or strong? With that said, here are some guidelines with a general range of dishes. Dim Sum can throw a dizzying amount of complex pairings your way. Stick with a high acid wine that also has significant weight. Riesling from Alsace (seek out the wines of Andre Ostertag) or Austria (Johannes Hirsch from the Kamptal is a rockstar!) would work great here and will keep your palate pristine in-between bouts with the steam cart. For spicy noodle, rice, or tofu dishes, texture and heat are the main concern. I like wines with softer acidity and a rounder texture as it will help balance the heat component. Gewurztraminer from Alsace (Zind-Humbrecht for a richer style) and Viognier from the Northern Rhône (any cuvée from Yves Cuilleron) or Central Coast of California (Morgan Clendenen’s Cold Heaven) are round and lush and can lend their own exotic profile to the dish. For smoked or roasted proteins with sweet sauces, such as Peking duck , red wine can be the go-to for you to build on the umami factor. A Barbera from Alba (Vietti’s bottling from the Scarrone vineyard is a prime example) or a Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (look for Failla from Ehren Jordan) will be dexterous with their acidity and high- toned red fruit."— Ehren Ashkenazi, The Modern (NYC)

This is a light, virtuous version of takeout lo mein that starts with a simple rainbow of vegetables: carrots, snow peas, Napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, and green onions. You can cut these up however you want (you can even buy shredded carrots for ease), but in my version I use a vegetable peeler to cut strips of the carrots, cut the snow peas into matchsticks by hand (the only fiddly part—you could just halve them), and shred up the cabbage, mushrooms, and green onions.

Good, homemade stock is the backbone to many a soup, and this one is no exception. With a ton of veggies and potatoes and a touch of cornstarch to give it body, this is a soup to get you through the rest of winter.

Heat reserved 1 tablespoon of mushroom oil in a large skillet or wok pop over to this sitehigh heat until shimmering. Add chopped Sichuan vegetables, fried mushrooms, and garlic. Cook, stirring and tossing constantly until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add Shaoxing wine and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to bowl with sauce.

If you were so inclined, you could do as the street vendors of Chengdu did: make the aromatics and sauce base in larger batches, store them together in a sealed container in the fridge, and have them ready to go at moment's notice whenever you want a quick snack. All you have to do is cook the noodles, add some starchy cooking liquid to the sauce base, pour it on top, and you're good to go. Due to its high oil, salt, and acid content, the pre-made and mixed sauce should stay good in a sealed container in the fridge for several weeks at least.

On top of steak cooked on the stovetop, pile cold cucumbers, red peppers, and peanuts, then drizzle with a spicy sauce made with fish sauce and dried Thai chiles. Eat it right away or refrigerate it overnight because it's even better the next day.