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[Shrimp Chili]

Whenever I go out to eat Chinese food, I always somehow find myself craving standard menu items. There are many kinds of Chinese food such as mapo tofu, sweet and sour pork, Chinese happo cai, and shrimp chili. Among them, shrimp chili in Japan is said to have been created by Chen Jianmin, who came to Japan in 1952, based on one of the Szechuan cuisines, "qian yao sha reen" (乾焼蝦仁), and arranged it for the Japanese.

When Chen opened Shisen Hanten in 1958, the spiciness of bean paste used in Chinese cuisine was unfamiliar to the Japanese. He, therefore, invented "shrimp chili," a dish readily accepted by the Japanese, by reducing the spiciness and simplifying the cooking method by using ketchup, soup, and egg yolk, which were used in Hong Kong and other places for cooking.

Although shrimp chili is now a popular Chinese dish that can be made at home, it took many trials and errors, such as chopping raw tomatoes, before the recipe was established, and it took Chen a long time until he reached the end of his life to perfect it. The Szechuan dishes that Chen arranged and introduced to the Japanese market became what we know well as twice-cooked pork with cabbage, ramen-like noodle soup, and mapo tofu with ground pork and green onions, and they remain the foundation of Chinese cuisine in Japan.

I was moved to think of the strong desire of the two chefs, Chen Jianmin, who wanted everyone to enjoy delicious food, and his son, Chen Kenichi, who introduced Szechuan cuisine to Japanese households in an easy-to-understand way through television. The roots of the Chinese cuisine we enjoy today can be traced back to this.

Seiryugama's Shallow Bowl
https://www.shokunin.com/en/seiryu/asabachi.html
Yoshita Handi-Design Studio's Tablespoon
https://www.shokunin.com/en/yoshita/cutlery.html

References
https://www.kyounoryouri.jp/recipe/4315 (recipe)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A8%E3%83%93%E3%81%AE%E3%83%81%E3%83%AA%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E7%85%AE
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%99%B3%E5%BB%BA%E6%B0%91
https://note.com/sisen_hanten/n/n3abfed5259c2