Spice Cabinet Chinese Lessons

This past week when I needed space for a jar of newly dried basil from my garden, I found myself cleaning out my spice cabinet. I pitched sage, curry powder, and lemon pepper that was way past its prime, and then my fingers touched Chinese Five Spice Powder, or wuxiang fen (五香粉), which is a mixture of spices--most commonly star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and ground fennel seeds.

I turned to my daughter who was nibbling on a snack, “Do you want to hear a funny story about your dad?”

I told her about how my dear husband, when we were first married, loved to cook but didn’t have much experience cooking Chinese dishes, despite growing up in Shanghai.  One day he tried making the ubiquitous Chinese dish Fish-fragrant Pork Slivers (Yuxiang Rousi, 鱼香肉丝).  However, at some point in his youth, he misheard the name of the dish as Wuxiang Rousi, and as a result, thought that the defining spice used in this dish was in fact wuxiang fen, Chinese Five Spice Powder.

Well, fast-forward a few months, and my husband decided to make this new dish for his mother who was in town visiting.  After taking a bite, she exclaimed, “What did you put in here?” “Wuxiang fen,” he answered.  

“The dish is called Yuxiang Rousi not Wuxiang Rousi,” she laughed, barely able to get the words out of her mouth. And to this day, this story brings much laughter around his parents' dinner table.

“Do you get it?” I asked my daughter,  “Daddy confused the word wu, meaning five, with yu, meaning fish.” 

“Yeah,” she said, laughing to herself and repeating “wu” and “yu.”

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If you’re wondering what Yuxiang Rousi is and how to make it, check out Moveable Feast’s adaptation of Sichuan food expert Fuschia Dunlop’s recipe: 
http://moveablefeast.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/mindblowing-fish-fragrant-pork-slivers-yu-xiang-rou-si/ 
and another recipe by Chef Wang:

http://traditionalchineserecipes.blogspot.com/2011/05/yu-xiang-zhu-rou-si-fish-fragrance-pork.html 
(I like his suggestion about putting the pork in the freezer before slicing; my father-in-law does this).