Couple's Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce

Couple's Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce

　　 With a history of five thousand years, China has seen numerous legendary tales buried over time. Historical records confirm that it was Chen Shou, a native of Anhan, who wrote the "Records of the Three Kingdoms," bringing the drama of the Three Kingdoms era to light and preserving it to this day. Couple's Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce embodies the rich cultural heritage of the Three Kingdoms from Nanchong, introducing an authentic gourmet series of classic Sichuan cuisine inspired by Three Kingdoms culture—the Couple's Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce series.

　　 Originating from the culinary culture of the Three Kingdoms, Couple's Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce is a famous local dish well-known throughout the Chengdu area. Legend has it that during the Three Kingdoms period, in Anhan (now Nanchong City), a couple ran a small spice-marinated food shop by the Jialing River, primarily serving travelers at the ferry crossing. At that time, the river was bustling with fishermen, boats, and merchants, making their business very prosperous. Zhang Fei, then the governor of Baxi Commandery, often visited the shop for drinks and found the dishes incredibly delicious and flavorful. He highly praised the couple’s cooking skills. To commend their unique culinary talent, he named the dish “Couple's Sliced Beef,” using the word “couple” to honor the husband and wife. The dish is tender, mildly spicy, fragrant, sweet, and savory, with a lingering aftertaste. It was later recommended to Liu Bei, Zhang Fei’s elder brother, as an imperial delicacy, and thus became known as Couple's Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce.

　　 Originating in the Shu Han period, flourishing through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the dish has been refined by thirty generations of chefs. Today, it is made by simmering and mixing over forty varieties of Chinese herbal medicines, offering beautifying and health-preserving benefits.

　　 Anhan is also the hometown of great figures—-’s hometown, -’s birthplace, and the home of Luo Ruiqing.

　　 As early as the 1930s, in the late Qing Dynasty, street vendors could be seen carrying shoulder poles or baskets, hawking cold-mixed sliced beef. Using cheap cow offal, especially cow lungs, these ingredients were finely processed, boiled in brine, then sliced and tossed with soy sauce, chili oil, chili pepper, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and sesame powder to create a uniquely flavored, affordable, and delicious dish. It became particularly popular among rickshaw pullers, porters, and poor students. In the 1930s, near Shaocheng in Chengdu, Sichuan, there was a couple running a small street stall—Guo Chaohua, the husband, and Zhang Tianzheng, the wife. Their meticulously prepared cold-mixed sliced beef was bright golden-red in color, bursting with numbing-spicy flavors and a uniquely delicious taste. The husband and wife worked in perfect harmony—one preparing the dish and the other selling it—making their modest business extremely successful, attracting so many customers that supply couldn’t meet demand. Mischievous students who often came to taste their beef would secretly write “Couple's Sliced Beef” on paper slips and stick them on the couple’s backs or their little food cart. Some would even shout, “Couple's Sliced Beef, Couple's Sliced Beef…” One day, a customer who tasted the beef made by the Guo couple was so impressed that he gifted them a golden plaque inscribed with four large characters: “Couple's Sliced Beef.” From then on, this snack became even more famous.