"German Riesling is the ultimate answer to this question. Find a lighter bodied riesling like a kabinett for the ma po tofu. A richer spatlese or auslese style for the duck to hang out with the fat. Pairing with Asian food is complex because there are so many flavor components. Spicy, sweet, fatty, tangy...Riesling easily handles all of those flavors. Don’t be afraid of wines with a little sweetness to them! They can really be excellent for pairing."— Adam Chumas, Tom Douglas Restaurants, Seattle

Preserved mustard root like this (often labeled "Sichuan Preserved Vegetable") can be found in cans or jars in your Chinese market. Once opened, they'll last for months in a sealed container in the fridge. You don't need much to add big flavor to dishes.

Perhaps the biggest key to making excellent dan dan noodles is to make your own roasted chile oil. When done right, it gets a rich, fruity, smoky flavor that none of the store-bought stuff can touch. It's really quite simple. Toasted Sichuan peppercorns have a sweet, citrus-like aroma with a mouth-numbing quality, while roasted chile oil brings on the heat.

Spring rolls are great, as are the flavors of bánh mì, so why not stick 'em together? These rolls are stuffed with pickled carrots and daikon radish, cucumber, jalapeño, and cilantro. The sauce is made with a mixture of homemade vegan mayonnaise and spicy chili-garlic sauce. Creamy, spicy, crispy, tangy, and a little greasy, they hit all the notes you want in a noodle game beginner guide|https://noodleinsight.com/ time snack.

"In the wine world we say, what grows together goes together. When it comes to pairing Chinese food with wine that theory goes out of the window. As the general rule I would pick wines with lower tannins, light to medium body and focus on preparation and cooking technique rather than ingredients. For example, if you serving spicy and complex dishes of Sichuanese cuisine, I would go with wines from Alsace (Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris...etc) or German Riesling. If we are enjoying delicate seafood dishes of Cantonese cuisine my choice would be Chablis, Gruner Veltliner and any lean, crisp white wine. With fried food, the best choice would be any refreshing, palate cleansing sparkling wine(Cava, Prosecco, Sekt,...) or Champagne. Sweeter dishes like mushu pork I would match with softer style Rose wines (Tavel, Muga Rose)."— Oz Podnar, BLT Fish (NYC)

If you've eaten a typical dish of takeout orange chicken any time recently, you might recall an orange-tinted sauce with very little resembling fruit flavor. Here, we create better, more complex flavor in our orange sauce by incorporating citrus three ways: fresh orange juice, grated zest, and dried peel. That last ingredient adds a depth that you can't get from fresh juice and zest alone.

Who doesn't love empanadas, particularly when they're deep fried to a perfectly crisp, flaky finish? These pastry pockets are stuffed with a mixture of cooked potatoes and capers flavored with a touch of chipotle and a dash of madras curry powder. The flavor combo is perhaps a bit unusual, but it's pretty fantastic, especially drizzled with a spicy cilantro chutney.

I use my patent-pending, copyrighted Minced Mushroom Mix (A.K.A. M 3 ) to replace the ground meat in this vegan mapo tofu, giving it a chewy texture and a rich flavor all its own. I like it even better than the original.

"General rule is that if the dish is hot and/or salty then find something with a little sweetness to extinguish the burn and flow with the dish. Riesling and off-dry Chenin Blanc are your wingmen. Wines with serious tannins, on the other hand, are your worst nightmare. For me this would be angry chimpanzees and big reds like Cabernet Sauvignon with spicy dishes. The spiciness of the dish is amplified to the nth degree and your mouth will be en fuego. For Peking duck, think Pinot Noir form the New world or riper-vintage old world. California Pinot Noirs with finesse like Eric/Kent, Ghostwriter and Littorai. And if you want something from Burgundy then look for the 2009 vintage. This was a warmer vintage and the wines show a bit more voluptuousness. Baby got back! For cumin lamb? I like Zinfandel with lamb or of you want to get all fancy pants then Greek reds work as well. For a Zinfandel find one that has a bit of elegance to it—my favorites would be Scholium Project "Arrows of Apollo" Zinfandel. For the Greek wine try Skouras St. George."— Josiah Baldivino, Michael Mina (San Francisco)

On top of steak cooked on the stovetop, pile cold cucumbers, red peppers, and peanuts, then drizzle with a spicy sauce made with fish sauce and dried Thai chiles. Eat it right away or refrigerate it overnight because it's even better the next day.

Once you've mastered our technique for a crispety, crunchety coating on takeout-style fried chicken, you can easily replicate a number of favorites on the buffet line. To turn our General Tso's recipe into sesame chicken, we simply change the sauce, adding extra sugar and sesame oil and omitting the chilies. Be sure to toast those sesame seeds before adding them, and sprinkle them both throughout the sauce and over the finished dish.