Ouch! Hunanese hosts turn down the heat in our food

Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province — It shouldn’t come as any surprise that one of the great perks of working in China is the food.  I’m only half-joking when I say that my colleagues and I rate field assignments here more on the cuisine than anything else.

And for that reason alone Hunan is certainly one of the better places to visit.  Considered one of the great eight regional cuisines of China, its food is best known for its fiery flavor.

Moreover, I’d been cheated out of an opportunity to sample local dishes the last time we were in the central China province.  It was around two years ago, when the worst ice storms ever to hit the country struck the eastern parts of central and southern China.  My memory of Hunan was of downed power lines and rice paddies covered with a thick layer of ice. Certainly not of food.  Trying to make our way up by perilous road from neighboring Guangdong, we didn’t have time to eat.

So once we knew we were off to Hunan this week, my stomach started rumbling.  Particularly after a month-long assignment in Haiti, where for thirty days I dined on rice and beans almost every dinner.  Yes, rice and beans for thirty days.

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