Husband and Wife Lung Slices

Synopsis

Husband and Wife Lung Slices is a traditional famous dish from Chengdu, Sichuan, and one of the top ten classic Sichuan dishes. In the 1930s, the couple Guo Chaohua and Zhang Tianzheng used leftover beef offal to create a refined cold dish, initially named "Husband and Wife Waste Slices," later elegantly renamed "Lung Slices." The main ingredients include beef heart, beef tongue, beef tripe, and beef, marinated with 32 spices, sliced, and tossed with chili oil, Sichuan peppercorns, and sesame seeds. It is spicy, aromatic, and as thin as paper. Modern versions typically do not contain actual beef lung.

Overview

Fuqi Feipian (Husband and Wife Lung Slices) is one of the most representative traditional famous dishes of Chengdu, Sichuan, and is listed among the Top Ten Classic Sichuan Dishes. It is a cold tossed dish, primarily made from marinated beef offal (beef heart, beef tongue, beef tripe, beef scalp, and beef). The ingredients are sliced thinly and tossed with chili oil, ground chili powder, ground Sichuan pepper, and ground sesame. The finished dish is bright red in color, boasting a numbing-spicy, savory, and fragrant flavor with a tender, soft texture. Interestingly, despite its name meaning "lung slices," modern Fuqi Feipian does not actually use beef lung.

The name Fuqi Feipian is rooted in a heartwarming story of a husband and wife. In the 1930s, a couple named Guo Chaohua and Zhang Tianzheng lived in Chengdu. Facing financial hardship, they meticulously prepared cold dishes from leftover beef offal scraps and sold them from a cart along the streets of Shaocheng, Chengdu. Since the ingredients were all leftover offal scraps, it was initially called "Fuqi Feipian" (Husband and Wife Waste Slices). Later, finding the character for "waste" (废, fèi) inelegant, they changed it to its homophone "lung" (肺, fèi), thus giving rise to the name Fuqi Feipian. Today, Fuqi Feipian has evolved from a street food into one of the representative dishes of Sichuan cuisine.

Historical Origins

The origin of Fuqi Feipian can be traced back to Chengdu in the 1930s. The couple Guo Chaohua and Zhang Tianzheng made a living by preparing cold beef offal dishes. Every morning, they would go to the slaughterhouse to purchase cheap beef offal scraps—beef scalp, heart, tongue, tripe, etc.—then meticulously clean, marinate, slice them, toss them with homemade chili oil, and sell them from a cart along the streets.

Because the "lung slices" made by the Guo couple were delicious and affordable, they quickly gained fame among the citizens of Chengdu. Later, they opened a fixed shop at Banbianqiao, and their business flourished even more. Chengdu locals praised the dish for being numbing-spicy, savory, fragrant, and melting in the mouth. For a time, Fuqi Feipian became famous throughout Sichuan. Through generations of inheritance and development, Fuqi Feipian gradually ascended from a street snack to a refined dish, becoming one of Sichuan's Top Ten Classic Dishes.

Main Ingredients

The preparation of Fuqi Feipian is extremely meticulous. The first step is marinating/braising—the beef offal needs to be braised until tender and flavorful in a brine prepared with 32 spices. The brine recipe is a closely guarded secret of each restaurant, typically containing star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, cardamom, angelica root, sand ginger, and many other spices. The braising time is also crucial; different offal require different times—beef tongue needs about 2 hours, beef tripe about 3 hours, and beef scalp requires even longer.

Slicing is the step that most tests the chef's knife skills. The braised offal must be cooled and then sliced extremely thin—as thin as paper, translucent. An experienced master can slice the "lung slices" so they are thin yet unbroken, large and intact, arranged on the plate like red petals.

Seasoning Technique

The core of Fuqi Feipian's seasoning lies in the chili oil. High-quality chili oil requires fine ground chili powder and rapeseed oil, carefully prepared—the oil temperature must be just right; too high will burn and turn bitter, too low won't release the chili's aroma. Properly prepared chili oil is bright red, spicy but not harsh. Poured over the slices, it not only adds the numbing-spicy flavor but also gives the dish its enticing red color.

Cultural Status

In 2018, Fuqi Feipian was rated as one of China's Top Ten Classic Sichuan Dishes by the China Cuisine Association. It has also become one of the most popular cold dishes in overseas Chinese restaurants, often translated on English menus as "Sliced Beef and Ox Tongue in Chilli Sauce." The story of Fuqi Feipian—from a street snack created by the poor using scraps to a classic dish renowned nationwide and even worldwide—is itself the best embodiment of the grassroots spirit in Chinese culinary culture.

References

1. Baidu Baike: https://baike.baidu.com/item/夫妻肺片
2. Wikipedia: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/夫妻肺片
3. Sichuan Fuqi Feipian Heritage Story: https://www.zhccr.com
4. Sichuan Provincial Information Network: https://www.scsqw.cn/scyx/ytsc/content_88092