Silken tofu bobbing in a fiery, numbing sauce of fermented black bean, chili oil, and Sichuan peppercorn, scattered with ground pork. The definitive dish of Sichuan cooking — volcanic, addictive, and nothing like any tofu you have eaten before.
Mapo tofu was created in the 1860s by a woman named Chen Liu at a small restaurant outside the north gate of Chengdu. Her nickname was "pockmarked grandmother" — má meaning pockmarked, pó meaning old woman. The dish she invented to feed workers and laborers crossing the bridge from the market became one of the most replicated Chinese dishes on earth. The genius of mapo tofu is mafla — a Sichuan concept meaning the combination of spicy heat (là) and the numbing, tingling sensation (má) produced by Sichuan peppercorns, which contain a compound called hydroxy-alpha-sanshool that triggers vibration receptors in the mouth. The result is something physiologically unusual: heat and cold and numbness all at once, every bite slightly disorienting, always compelling you toward the next one. Sichuan cooking is built on this sensation, which is why it has spread from Chengdu across China and now the world. The tofu must be silken — the contrast between the cloud-soft curd and the aggressive sauce is the whole point. Serve it over plain white rice. Let the sauce flood the bowl.
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