Impeccable Taste
Greetings, Friends of The Mala Market,
For those of you already in gifting mode, we're introducing some highly giftable items and collections comprised of Sichuan's most esteemed artisan sauces. That includes a new 20 Year Baoning Vinegar and a China Time-Honored Brand Collection representing the pinnacle of Sichuan food production. Keep scrolling to learn just what that means!
The bundles are easy to add to your cart and come at a slight discount off individual prices. And while we are not able to gift wrap, we'll include our trademark red tissue paper and your gift message printed on seasonal stationery (see above). If you'd like to order now and have your order shipped closer to the holidays, just leave a note in the Note box at checkout with the date you would like us to ship it.
And for those of you who (like us) put off shopping until December, enjoy this new recipe for an old-school Sichuan dish that's similar to twice-cooked pork but easier to make: salt-fried pork with doubanjiang and douchi.
Happy Autumn!
🌶 Taylor & Fongchong 🌶
P.S. Attention Canadian Friends: We have recently secured reduced-rate shipping for you via UPS that includes all taxes, tariffs and fees. While it is still not cheap to ship from the U.S. to Canada, you'll see a significant reduction in rates for larger orders to most addresses. And there will be no surprise charges on arrival!
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Baoning Handcrafted Black Vinegar, 20 Year
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$30.00
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Sichuan's Baoning vinegar is one of the Four Famous Vinegars of China and is the vinegar of choice for Sichuan dishes. We are the exclusive importers of three handmade Baoning vinegars, a 3-year blend, a 10-year single-batch vinegar and our newest arrival, this super-premium 20 year.
This very small-batch 20-year Baoning is the most complex and fullest bodied the company makes, being richer and thicker though not sweet.
The handcrafted 20-year Baoning is not for high-heat cooking but should be reserved for cold dishes, dipping sauces and noodle topping.
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Sichuan Handcrafted Soy Sauce + Black Vinegar (Small Batch Heritage Sauces)
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$70.00
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For this collection, we have paired Sichuan's finest handcrafted soy sauce with the rarest of the province's aged vinegars. Both are China Time-Honored Brands that have been made for hundreds of years, and both are the top expressions of their company's craft.
These sauces are very small batch and rare because both are still made the traditional way, fermented in large earthenware crocks. In the case of soy sauce, the crocks are exposed to the air and hand-stirred daily. In the case of vinegar, the young vinegar is fermented in crocks with 20 years of microbe growth. Both of these time-tested methods imbue the sauces with the inimitable taste of the local terroir over a long period of all-natural fermentation. No shortcuts are taken, and no stray ingredients or preservatives are added.
Note how large and impressive this bottle of soy sauce is (700ml / 24 oz), especially when paired with the premium bottling of the vinegar in opaque black glass.
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Like Twice-Cooked Pork, But Easier
Xueci Cheng brings us this recipe for a beloved dish from her childhood in Sichuan, which she fell in love with again this past summer in Chengdu:
"When people think about Sichuan-style stir-fried pork dishes, the first dish that often comes to mind is huí guō ròu (回锅肉), also known as twice-cooked pork belly, a staple found on many Sichuan and Chinese restaurant menus worldwide. But its lesser-known cousin, salt-fried pork (yán jiān ròu, 盐煎肉), deserves just as much love. It’s simpler to make, but it is just as satisfying.
"These two dishes use similar ingredients—pork, green garlic (or green pepper) and doubanjiang—but they differ in subtle but important ways. For one thing, yan jian rou uses skinless pork with less fat and is usually made without the sweet wheat paste (tian mian jiang) that gives hui guo rou a hint of sweetness.
"The real distinction, however, lies in the technique: While hui guo rou is boiled first, and then fried, yan jian rou is just fried, using a method known as raw stir-frying, or sheng bao (生爆). The pork is cooked with salt first, then it is seasoned with douchi (fermented soybeans, or “black beans”) and doubanjiang for a deep, savory flavor that’s unmistakably Sichuanese."
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China Time-Honored Brand Collection
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$122.00
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A bundle of our top-of-the-line sauces, the China Time-Honored Brand Collection includes Sichuan's finest handcrafted soy sauce, 20-year black vinegar, 3-year aged doubanjiang (chili bean paste) and 3-year douchi (fermented soybeans), as well as the country's most honored roasted sesame oil.
A China Time-Honored Brand has been in business for at least 50 years, but most of them have been operating in various forms for centuries and have survived the challenges of emperors, wars, invasions, revolution, collectivization and renewed competition. Somehow, the knowledge, skills and recipes have been retained, and we can still experience how these quintessential Sichuan ingredients tasted at their origin.
Of course, factories have also been automated and expanded over the years, and all of these companies now make mass-market versions of their products as well, but what we've gathered here are the handmade versions they still make in very small batches in the traditional way—the highest expressions of their craft.
Outside China these sauces are exclusive to The Mala Market, and even within China they are difficult to procure. You can be sure your gift recipient has not acquired these—or any Chinese product of their quality—anywhere else!
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Our Baoning Vinegar (and More)
Here's what Andrew Zimmern told New York Magazine's The Strategist about the 10 Year Boaning Vinegar (before he tasted the 20 Year):
"But that Baoning ten-year-old vinegar, which is [$29] for 24 ounces on their site — I use that in recipes that other people are using $100 bottles of sherry wine vinegar. It’s that sophisticated. I think people really overlook Japanese and Chinese vinegars in particular, to their detriment. They’re not as expensive as the European ones, and they have as much depth of flavor and nuance."
Andrew, whom I believe to be the most generous person in the food world with support and encouragement, both to us and to everyone else, also praised our chilies, Sichuan pepper, soy sauces, doubanjiang and Sichuan pepper oil. But just as gratifying to me is what he had to say about this newsletter you are reading:
"Mala Market is just like Gustiamo and just like Japanese Pantry, that the owners are always going there, always finding new things, always populating their newsletters with a lot of wisdom. People ask me sometimes, 'Oh, how do you know so much about this or that subject?' It’s like, I’m teachable. This stuff nowadays, if you sign up for newsletters with the right people and open your ears and read shit, you’ll learn a lot."
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China's Famous Vinegars Collection
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$67.00
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| With the arrival of the 20 Year Baoning, we have updated our Famous Vinegars Collection to span not only the regions and styles of Chinese vinegar but also the fermentation age.
The collection now includes the 20 Year Sichuan Baoning vinegar, a 9 Year Shanxi mature vinegar and a 6 Year Zhenjiang vinegar from Jiangsu. All are "black vinegars," made from combinations of rice and/or other grains. Completely natural fermentation means they need no additives or preservatives to arrive at their unique tastes. And, yes, they all taste distinctly different from each other!
Click through to our site to learn much more about each one.
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