 Has Chinese food over the years just gotten too spicy and possibly according to new statistics It shows that the Sichuan food trend may have peaked. Yeah for a second I thought 97 out of 100 dishes is gonna be mala, but you know, it looks like it's possibly reversing We got to talk about it Andrew because a new study came out from this website sixth tone And they translate a lot of stuff in Chinese in the English long story short Andrew They're asking the question has China reached peak spice because such one food and or over the past ten years in China as well as Chinese diaspora communities became so dominant It looked like it was just going too far. It looks like Cantonese food. It's coming back. Yeah, I would say in the past seven years I mean every new restaurant that opened up in New York City that was Chinese like at least half of them if not more were Such one inspired, you know, I mean and everybody has to have such one dishes on their menu now At least a few just to cater to that taste palate But it may have peaked because now the amount of restaurants that are opening that are such one are going down So we're gonna talk about please hit that like button check out other episodes of the hop-hop boys But you know what if you don't want to go to a search one restaurant But you want to slightly search one influence whatever you are eating. You should check out smile. Ah, yeah Smala is actually really good and by the way guys a lot of non Such one food eaters really like the sauce anyways check it out small sauce calm Yeah, I mean listen such one is a hot seller still It's not really that it's like Reversing into the sense of like such one food is not popular. It's just that the upward trend is more going slightly Downward right at one point it literally look like what? Every single food dish in China in the Chinese desk diaspora communities was gonna become such one Yeah, I mean looking at the charts so between the two most popular singular cuisines Search one food versus Guangdong cuisine, which is essentially Cantonese food are still the two biggest most popular singular Cuisines in China all right of Chinese is that chart shocking though that literally it goes like 28 and 20% and then 50% distribution for all other provinces 28% So that's almost one third of Chinese restaurants are considered search one restaurants. That's a lot You don't understand that's a lot of restaurants because China has a lot of rest would that be like a third of restaurants in America being Texas barbecue because like David Guangdong is like such a huge province It's an entire huge gigantic province that encompasses so many different cities You know, so I mean like that that is a a huge cuisine So yes, it just goes to speak on how popular such one food is it was getting too much man. Listen guys I love such one food. I go to such one mountain house all the time here in New York It was just getting out of control man. It was becoming overwhelming You can look at this chart the search one knees craze is cooling down So then the chart shows that the such one cuisine amount of restaurants is is going down finally Guangdong cuisine Actually, it's kind of seeing a little bit of a rise David are people coming back to Cantonese food? Yeah, and it shows that Cantonese food is really popular on the coastline It even has a heat map referencing like such one is popular in these regions Guangdong Of course mostly on the coastline because Guangdong I feel like the flavors are gonna appeal to people Andrew who also live on the coastline. Yeah, and I would say overall I think People are coming back to Cantonese restaurants partially because just because you're labeled as a Cantonese restaurant It doesn't mean you don't have any such one dishes I notice a lot of new Chinese restaurants that open up in New York City, for example they might be mostly Shanghai knees or Cantonese food, but they'll have some chili dishes. They always have a lot of yeah They have a lot to see they have a or maybe a kosue G which is a mouthwatering chicken They'll have something with chili peppers. Yeah, so here are quick examples of a few Sichuanese dishes You have suede you you you have the sauteed eel and duck blood curd I think that that one doesn't come over to America as much. You've got you know, uh Roast over here. You got mapo tofu and of course the lots of G Cantonese you've got hot cow. You've got gone to our hall which is here You've got the pineapple bun with the butter roast goose A boats iPhone over here, but it says that both Cantonese restaurants and Sichuan restaurants are becoming more expensive Have you noticed that trying there? There's a lot of high-end stuff nowadays whether it's we're talking about Mott 32s all the way to Ula's and Lunar's that is true that there are more cheaper Cantonese restaurants Then there are Sichuan restaurants that are cheap though at least in America for sure That's true and overseas. You know, I don't know. It's tough to say in China I mean, I guess for me my quick takes are this I was waiting for this to happen And I don't know if it's because we're Cantonese Andrew But I always wanted to see more representation for other provinces of food not just such one I'm not saying the Sichuan doesn't deserve it, but 33% of the restaurants in China being such on ease That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. What are some other? Cuisines that you feel like are underrated that should be more popular David. All right So in the article it lists Guizhou food, would you agree Guizhou food is underrated especially Guizhou Mifun and it also lists a lot of stuff from Lonzo, you know like Dunhuang, yeah, no Lonzo La Mian. It's that that's super popular Right, right, right has a lot of Muslim influence in there. I would say this don't pay as an entire region is underrated That's my number one don't pay food is hyper underrated Here's a weird thing Andrew a lot of American Chinese food Andrew It's sort of based off don't pay food sweet and sour pork is based off guobao Oh, I think that uh sort of related to don't pay food. I do think the Shandong food is underrated Uh-huh, huangmen Ji dojo G Yunnan food is underrated, but probably not Guoqiao Mian I think that in America people only know Yunnan food for crossing bridge noodles I think Yunnan has a lot more to offer But yeah, I would say that every province in China has like some banger dishes, but certainly some provinces have way more than others Right. Oh, here's another thing that a lot of people don't know about Sichuan food Andrew 20 years ago 30 years ago Sichuan food was only 30 percent Ma La It was 70 percent non-spicy dishes, right? They said over the past 30 years Due to the newer chefs and just that popular I guess you want to say it like legally drug-inducing feeling that Ma La can give you Now when you look at a Sichuan menu 70 of the percent of the dishes are Ma La 30 percent of the dishes are non-Ma La So I just wanted to pop up some photos of them non-Ma La dishes just to prove to people, you know Yeah, not you mean not every Sichuan dish is Ma La. Yeah, of course not. Yeah, of course they don't but Yeah, it seems like Especially with the colors and the spice and you know people when they pay for food They feel like they want to get that experience and get a feeling from their food Here's the thing Cantonese food is always very delicious, but it may not give you that quite Intoxicating experience that Sichuan is literally Sichuan food literally is intoxicated for Cantonese food Maybe you just eat it and then you feel very yummy, but then for Sichuan food you eat it and then you feel Let's get into the comments section somebody said Probably it's hard to find a good Cantonese restaurant outside of Guangdong because the dishes are not very easy to cook Sichuan food is actually not that easy to make basically once you get access to the peppers It's not that difficult to make. Yeah, and this other guy said yes It's true because Sichuan restaurants were designed to mask the ingredients in the Sichuan region at a time in the ancient days Sichuan it's a lot of Basins and valleys they couldn't get the good ingredients so they threw the peppers on it to mask it Right, so I guess What do you think of that? Do you think that's true? Like I guess I guess I could see that I mean usually when people spice their food a lot It was usually partially out of necessity right close regions are very very Regions are never the spiciest because you have access to fresh seafood and you have a good ingredient So you don't need to spice your food like any type of beachy food like even California beachy food is not spicy Japanese food is super super not spicy. Yeah, Japanese food is not spicy Somebody said Cantonese food concentrates on the eastern coast because that's where they have enough fresh ingredients And that is required to make Cantonese food taste good. That is my guess Yeah, I do think a lot of geography has to do with it. I do think nowadays. It's different now You have Sichuan lobster dishes because they can get lobsters in Due to just transportation systems are just way more advanced nowadays Someone said the reason why Sichuan food is so popular within China is because Sichuan people migrate everywhere to work in China Whereas Guangdong people tend to leave the country or go to Southeast Asia or move to the west. Oh, that's very interesting I guess I could see that. Yeah, somebody said you are more likely to find a good Cantonese restaurant in Oregon than you are to find one in Inner Mongolia Basically the Cantonese food is better in a coastal part of America than in an inland part of China That's interesting. That's an interesting take. I guess I could see Mongolia for sure the Cantonese food is probably super not good anyway Have you ever heard of Yunnan cuisine? Andrew Yunnan cuisine recently became more popular, right? Yunnan cuisine is pretty good And a lot of people call it like Chinese fo because actually there's a lot of Southeast Asian influence in Yunnan, right? Especially in the mountain ranges somebody said Jiangxi region cuisine rise up I had to look up photos of Jiangxi cuisine I didn't even know what it was it looks tasty, but I'll tell you this. There's no way Jiangxi region No, I can defend every province of China because here's the thing every province in China every Province in China is gonna have it's like top five top ten dishes Right there are ten dishes within every single Chinese province that are unique to that province that are really good But does every province have 50 dishes that are really good? No, no only essentially Guangdong is one of them has Hundreds of dishes that are really good. Honestly. I would a yo man I don't want to say this but even Shanghai once you get out of the top 20 You don't love it Right, but the top 20 are really good from Shanghai, right? But yeah, not every region has 52 a hundred good right right right listen guys It's all about that's why Cantonese menus are so big think about it Yeah, because even when you go down the bench it's still fire, right? Somebody said of course. There's just couples arguing in here Somebody said man I hated this whole Ma la Sichuan cuisine craze over the past ten years in China as well as Chinese diaspora communities somebody else said oh no can't stop won't stop I guess well, what do you think about this debate and I used to debate a data girl from Chengdu And I would kind of like argue with her because I was like I just can't Stay and go in a Sichuan restaurant more than once a week man. It's too oily I couldn't do it It can get spicy and oily like when you get hot pot and you want the Ma la hot pot You just cannot get the spiciest level I would never get the spiciest level because at some point it's just taking over the taste of the dish But I'll tell you this David and this is like, you know, we got a lot of Korean friends and Koreans Generally, I would say they're more interested by Sichuan food than they are Cantonese food Yes, they eat a lot of my not that my Korean friends don't like Cantonese food But they they do feel it differently when they eat Sichuan food So Sichuan food was able to appeal to the more extreme strong taste buds the people who desire To get hit like, you know, right in their in their tongue and you know get their sensory It's true that every culture has different taste buds, right? Yeah, for example and Cantonese food is really popular in Japan Yeah, like you can get you can find like dim sum restaurants actually all yeah Not a lot of Sichuan restaurants in Japan probably right But I could tell you this a lot of like like white people who have traveled and are kind of adventurous white people They really like Sichuan probably like to do drugs. They like Ma la they do they do that. Oh my gosh I love sweaty all my fights and dummy dude So they that's what they tell me they literally said that it hits different Such on food hits. It doesn't see the modern style with the 70 I can't eat it every day Are you kidding me with that much oil and that much like peppers? I just can't do it all the time, but it is great And I'm glad the Sichuan food got popular and now every Chinese restaurant that opens up probably serves Some chili dish and that's why you can use small I every day and I'm not just saying that to promote small You could use any chili crisp all the time the ones that are more toned down because it gives you that Sichuan hit that you want without covering the inside This is really good for people who didn't grow up eating Ma la food. Yeah, I mean like this is really good So so basically this is my final takeaway, man I think there's got to be more representation of everything in China at a more elevated Systemized level much like Guangdong and Sichuan food have all the levels now low middle high You don't see and low middle high like Guizhou food yet. You know, I don't I doubt they even have that in China However, interestingly enough Andrew Jack Ma is starting a new Pre-packaged elevated food trend in China and a lot of people are doing this So Andrew, you know who was the first people to do it was Kung Fu the people who Jack Bruce Lee's logo Wow, so basically what they were doing was they were using a centralized kitchen Proprietary ovens or like sort of cooking techniques like steaming and air-frying it at the same time or whatever So basically they were able to create Essentially frozen meals that tasted relatively similar to the fresh-cooked one And I'm saying that every province of Chinese food needs to go through that commercialization and systemization Do I wish that you know, there could be chefs that are authentic from every province traveling everywhere All the time sure, but that's not the reality, right in the future if people want regional provincial Representation in China and possibly this system may make it make its way to America Panera breads already doing it right now, even though Panera bread stuff doesn't taste good Right. I'm saying that in the future of the world, but especially China Hyper-elevated TV dinners is the way to go Because that's the only way to get these really authentic provincial dishes shipped all across everywhere And nowadays, you know, the reheating technology is becoming so advanced because I remember I used to get gale alam This like curry beef and at Maxims in Hong Kong and I was always like man, this is pretty good How do they cook and all that stuff in the back? They're not yeah, they're preheating it. Yeah, it comes in an elevated TV dinner Yeah, probably comes in a bag. I mean, you know soup plantation. Everybody did it Anyways guys, uh, let me know in the comments down below Um, are you pro Sichuan food or do you feel like it peaked and does that interest you in small assos? Check it out. Last question How are you feeling the new Orleans flavor chicken wings? Where does that fall in Cantonese food or just foreign food? Or or Sichuan food. That's not Sichuan Listen guys, let me know if you guys know about the new Orleans flavors chicken wings in China. Yeah, I'm not a fan, but You know it's popping. Anyway guys, let us know what you think in the comment section below until next time We the hop hop boys be out. Peace