Hunan cuisine can be traced back at least 1,800 years ago. Aside from the fact that Chairman Mao Zedong was born and raised in Hunan, the people of this province have another source of great pride - Hunan cuisine. One of China's eight major styles of cooking, Hunan cuisine can be traced back at least1,800 years. Proud Hunan chefs will tell you that in the 1970s a menu for Hunan cuisine along with many astonishing artifacts including a fabulous jacket made of thin jade slices with gold threads was found at Mawangdui near Changsha, the provincial capital..

        Upon entering the Dongtingchun Restaurant, you can find a bust of Chairman Mao opposite the door. Many customers come in and out, which supported rumours that it is one of the best restaurants which offers Hunan cuisine in Shanghai. A waitress brought the menu and warned that all the dishes in the restaurant were spicy. And, sure enough, almost every dish contained la jiao or peppers.

        However, the degree of spiciness varies due to different kinds of peppers and you can choose according to your tolerance of heat. Usually, the small and pointed wild peppers are the spiciest, while the so-called white peppers are less spicy, which are in fact green peppers heated up in boiled water and then air-dried.

        Hunan cuisine has three styles of cooking from areas around the Xiangjiang River, Dongting Lake and western Hunan. The Xiangjiang River cuisine is the most popular one, with four characteristics: tasty, savory, hot and sour. The suan dou jiao rou ni , or sour string bean cubes with smashed meal reflects the four tastes all at the same time. You will find that all the bean cubes are eaten up while the meat is left, because the tender and sour bean cubes, which were preserved in salt, will arouse your appetite.

        Since the climate in Hunan is moist, eating hot and salty food is believed to drive the humidity out of the body. The cured meat, dried in the sun and smoked on charcoal, is another popular ingredient in Hunan dishes. It usually carries both fat and lean meat, but the fatty parts are not as oily as the meat is dried for a long time. La ba dou zheng rou, or preserved soya bean steamed with cured meat is delicious and salty as well. When eating Hunan dishes, you will have to order bowl after bowl of rice to lighten the strong shock to your mouth.

        The province has many delicacies from mountains and lakes, such as rabbits, fish and lotus roots, which diversify the ingredients of the cuisine. However, the portions in the restaurant are quite small, so you will have to order many dishes to fill your stomach. And the colors of those dishes are dark and not so attractive.

        So many customers were crowded in the restaurant during meal time that the waitresses couldn't attend to them all. You have to wait for a fairly long time for your order. After you leave the restaurant, your mouth and stomach will burn for quite some time because of the hot spices, but the cold, early spring wind helps cool down the heat.