Doubanjiang

Fry them till the skins wrinkle, then hit the fermented chilli.

Ma before la: the tingle opens the mouth, the bean paste fills it.

The cubes break and thicken the sauce. That is the intended outcome.

Minced fat renders into the paste and carries the chilli further.

Chilli oil coats every cube; the curd is texture, the paste is the dish.

Fried in the same oil, they brown at the same rate. One aromatic step.

Green raw allium at the end is the only cool thing in the bowl.

Two soy ferments, one salty and one funky. Sichuan uses both on purpose.

Deep-fried flesh is a sponge for chilli oil and needs the salt to hold.

Fermented broad bean chilli fills a vegetable that is mostly structure.

Fermented bean and chilli oil coat every fold. Nothing else reaches them.

Malty acid at the finish lifts the paste off the roof of your mouth.

Barnyard fat plus barnyard ferment. The gaminess stops reading as a fault.

Both bitter, both fermented beans. Mole logic with the wrong chilli.