Ask a Sichuan cook what makes the food taste the way it does, and the answer will usually be doubanjiang: a thick, dark red paste of fermented broad beans, wheat flour, salt and chilli, matured for months or years in open yards. It is the seasoning behind mapo tofu, twice-cooked pork, and most of the red-braised dishes of the region. The best-known production centre is Pixian, a district on the western edge of Chengdu, where the climate and the local water are credited with the flavour, and where the paste has protected geographical indication status in China.
How it is made
The process is old and slow. Broad beans are fermented with wheat flour and a mould culture, then combined with salted chilli and put into large earthenware crocks, which are set out in open yards and left to mature for one to three years. Each day the paste is turned over, exposing it to sun and air, and the colour deepens from bright red to a dark brick brown while the flavour loses its raw chilli edge and gains a savoury, almost marmite-like depth. Good doubanjiang is salty, funky, faintly sweet and not primarily hot.
Visiting the production yards
Several of the established factories around Pixian run visitor areas and museums alongside production, with rows of crocks laid out under netting and a tasting and retail shop at the end. Because the yards are open to the weather, the smell is intense and entirely characteristic. This is a working food industry rather than a folkloric display, and the contrast between the traditional yards and the modern bottling lines behind them is the interesting part. Buying a jar on site is cheaper and fresher than buying in town.
Practical notes
Pixian is west of Chengdu city, reachable by metro to the district and then by taxi, or by car in around an hour depending on traffic. Visits generally need to be booked during weekdays, since the yards are quieter then and some sites restrict tours at weekends. Take a cool bag if you are buying in summer. If you are flying home, remember that paste counts as a liquid and gel for hand luggage; pack it in checked baggage and double-bag it, because it is heavy, dark and greasy.
