Twice-cooked pork, known in Japan as “hoikoro,” that was served to the staff left an indelible impression. The sweet and spicy taste of the tianmian sauce and doubanjiang were entirely new ...

You can vary the flavour of this dish by using different Asian bean pastes or chilli bean pastes, such as Japanese miso, Chinese doubanjiang ... I like to flavour the pork with a lot of ginger.

Mapo tofu is one of the most well-known dishes from Sichuan in southwest China, made of tofu, minced pork, and spices ... Fermented bean paste, or doubanjiang, adds umami to the dish.