''Suanla chaoshou'' is a dish of

Sichuan cuisine Sichuan cuisine, alternatively romanized as Szechwan cuisine or Szechuan cuisine (, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), is a style of Chinese cuisine originating from Sichuan Province. It has bold flavours, particularly the pungency and spicin ...

that consists of a spicy sauce over boiled, meat-filled

dumpling Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fi ...

s. ''Suanla'' means "hot and sour," and ''chaoshou'' is what these particular large

wonton A wonton () is a type of Chinese dumpling commonly found across regional styles of Chinese cuisine. It is also spelled wantan or wuntun in transliteration from Cantonese () and wenden from Shanghainese (). There are many different styles of ...

s are called in the Chinese province of

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

. ''Chao shou'' translates literally as "folded hands"; in the

Sichuanese dialects Sichuanese or Szechwanese ( zh, s=, t= ; Sichuanese Pinyin: ''Si4cuan1hua4''; ), also called Sichuanese/Szechwanese Mandarin ( zh, s=四川官话, t=四川官話, p=Sìchuān Guānhuà, links=no) is a branch of Southwestern Mandarin spoken main ...

this refers to a style of dumpling whose square wrapper is folded into two points, one crossed over the other. According to

Peter Hessler Peter Benjamin Hessler (born June 14, 1969) is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of four books about China and has contributed numerous articles to ''The New Yorker'' and ''National Geographic'', among other publications. In 201 ...

(Beijing correspondent for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and former

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...

teacher), "In most parts of Sichuan, you can walk into a restaurant and order ''chaoshou'' without making a sound. Cross your arms and they will understand exactly what you want." One native speaker claims the Sichuan-only name for these dumplings may have originated at one time by a dialectic transposition, i.e. "chao shou" was originally "shou chao", meaning "hand-folded".

In the United States

Variations on this dish are available in many Chinese restaurants in the United States, with the name on the English menu being "Won Ton with Spice Sauce" or similar. From 1981 to December 2022, Mary Chung's restaurant (鍾園川菜館, Pinyin: ''Zhōngyuán Chuāncàiguǎn'') in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

served a dish called ''Suan La Chow Show'', which were dumplings in a spicy

soy The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

sauce on top of a bed of raw

mung bean The mung bean (''Vigna radiata''), alternatively known as the green gram, maash ( fa, ماش٫ )٫ mūng (), monggo, or munggo (Philippines), is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract G ...

sprouts. This popular dish is different from the ''suan la chao shou'' described by Fuchsia Dunlop, who studied at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in Chengdu. Although somewhat similar, Dunlop's recipe includes a substantial amount of black vinegar in the sauce, making it much more sour. A local restaurant reviewer noted the first version of the dish was introduced to Cambridge as Shanghai street food by a restaurant called Colleen's Chinese Cuisine, owned by Colleen Fong, where Mary Chung’s husband worked as a chef in the 1970s. At one point, Colleen taught a cooking class at MIT. Her recipe was posted to Usenet in 1990 with further clarification a few years later. Other Chinese restaurants around Cambridge, Massachusetts serve this version of the dish, and it appears to be a somewhat popular local variation. Mary Chung's version of Suan La Chow Show was featured by the Gentleman Gourmand on the Boston episode of

The Hungry Detective ''The Hungry Detective'' is a show on Food Network which premiered on October 17, 2006. The host is Chris Cognac, a police detective from Southern California. Cognac earlier appeared in Episode 4 of Food Network's Feasting on Asphalt. Chris Cog ...

television show.

References

{{Dumplings Sichuan cuisine Dumplings Meat dishes

In the United States

See also

References