Xiang La Niu Za

Xiang La Niu Za is a staple of Hunan street food stalls and late-night restaurants, where a mix of beef offal — tripe, heart, and lung — is flash-stir-fried with dried chilies, doubanjiang, and fresh aromatics until fragrant and fiery. The dish reflects Hunan's philosophy of bold heat and unwasted ingredients.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 300g (10 oz) honeycomb beef tripe, cleaned
• 200g (7 oz) beef heart, trimmed
• 150g (5 oz) beef lung, cleaned (optional — substitute tripe if unavailable)
• 2 tbsp (30ml) Shaoxing rice wine
• 3 slices fresh ginger
• 3 tbsp (45ml) vegetable oil
• 8 dried red chilies (er jing tiao), halved
• 1 tbsp (15ml) doubanjiang (fermented chili bean paste)
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 30g (1 oz) fresh ginger, julienned
• 2 fresh green chilies, sliced on the diagonal
• 2 spring onions (scallions), cut into 4 cm (1½-inch) lengths
• 2 tbsp (30ml) light soy sauce
• 1 tsp (5ml) dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp ground Sichuan pepper
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Instructions

1. Blanch tripe, heart, and lung separately in boiling water with Shaoxing wine and ginger slices for 10 minutes each. Drain, cool, and slice into thin strips about 0.5 cm (¼ inch) thick.
2. Heat a wok over the highest possible flame until smoking. Add oil and swirl to coat.
3. Add dried chilies and stir-fry for 30 seconds until darkened and fragrant. Add doubanjiang and stir-fry for 1 minute until oil turns red.
4. Add garlic and ginger julienne; stir-fry 30 seconds.
5. Add the offal strips and toss constantly over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes.
6. Add green chilies, spring onions, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and Sichuan pepper. Toss everything together for 1 minute.
7. Drizzle with sesame oil, remove from heat, and serve immediately with steamed rice.

Cook's Notes: Blanching each cut of offal separately prevents cross-contamination of flavors and textures. The key to this dish is extreme wok heat — a domestic burner works but a restaurant burner produces superior wok hei. Soaking tripe in cold water with vinegar for 30 minutes before blanching reduces any strong odor.