''Fuqi feipian'' () is a popular Sichuan dish, served cold or at room temperature, which is made of thinly sliced

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...

and beef

offal Offal (), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but usually excludes muscle. Offal may also refe ...

. Common ingredients in the modern version include beef heart, tongue and

tripe Tripe is a type of edible lining from the stomachs of various farm animals. Most tripe is from cattle, pigs and sheep. Types of tripe Beef tripe Beef tripe is made from the muscle wall (the interior mucosal lining is removed) of a cow's st ...

, and a generous amount of various spices, including Sichuan pepper. True to its Sichuan roots, the desired taste should be both spicy and mouth-numbing. Despite its name, actual lung is rarely used.

History

As early as the late

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, many Muslim vendors living in

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

were already selling beef slices served cold in the city's streets, using beef offal because they were relatively inexpensive. Because of its low cost, the dish was popular among

rickshaw A rickshaw originally denoted a two- or three-wheeled passenger cart, now known as a pulled rickshaw, which is generally pulled by one person carrying one passenger. The first known use of the term was in 1879. Over time, cycle rickshaws (also ...

pullers and poor students. In the 1930s, a married couple in Chengdu became famous for making beef slices. The husband, Guo Zhaohua (郭朝華), and wife, Zhang Tianzheng (張田政), were particular about the beef slices they made, and often experimented with new ingredients. As a result, their beef slices had a distinct taste from the other beef slice vendors, and their business boomed. Often though, mischievous children would pull a prank on the couple, and stick paper notes that read ''fuqi feipian'' ("husband and wife lung pieces") on their backs, and sometimes people would yell the words out. Later on, a merchant tried the ''fuqi feipian'' and was so satisfied, he gave them a gold-lettered plaque that read ''fuqi feipian'', and the name has stuck ever since. To suit their customers' tastes, the couple made many improvements on the dish, and offal slices were eventually replaced by various beef or lamb slices. Many people still preferred calling the dish ''fuqi feipian'', thus the name is still used today. The meaning of ''fei'' was originally waste parts or offal (廢) but later changed to lung (肺) so the dish sounded less repulsive. The lung could be a part of this offal, but ''fei'' is not lung by itself in this dish's meaning.

References

* This article uses translated material from the equivalent Chinese-language Wikipedia article (retrieved March 24, 2006). Both articles are licensed under the

GNU Free Documentation License The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the r ...

External links

Chengdu small eats
Sichuan cuisine Chinese words and phrases Offal Beef dishes {{meat-stub