I've been to Hunan Manor a couple times in the past, and I figured it was time to try one of their Hunan province specialties. I had been intrigued by their sour string bean dishes for a while so I decided to get the sour string beans with yam cake lunch special.
This dish reminded me of a dish I had eaten when I was younger. It is chopped up pickled string beans which gives it the sour flavor, and those are sauteed with ground pork, garlic, ginger, red chilis, green chilis, the slices of yam cake. I wasn't sure what to expect with the yam cakes, but they were also very familiar to me. It's solid almost like a Korean dduk cake, but it has a nice starchy, mildly taro flavor to it.
The dish is sauteed up with a soy based sauce to add a touch of saltiness, and the pork adds a little richness and fat. The stars of the show obviously are the yam cake and sour string beans. The string beans still retain a bit of snap to them even though there was a slight pickle to them. The yam cakes add a very distinct texture, and the two different chilis add a lot of heat to the dish.
Overall this was a delicious dish that really brought me back to my youth. I really don't know when I had something like this, but I have distinct memories of this flavor. I will gladly get this dish again, and I'd love to have M try this at some point as well.
my office is really close to Hunan Manor too and I order from there often as well. I like reading your posts because it's a glimpse of the other dishes that I haven't ventured to try. I usually get the sour string beans with minced pork (or the variation that includes mung bean noodles). Both are very good, and very spicy. I highly recommend it!
ReplyDeleteHi tma! Thanks for reading and commenting. I'll definitely try those options out. I really like this dish so I tend to keep getting it, but I'm really intrigued by the version with mung bean noodles.
ReplyDeleteHelpful & descriptive post! Have never tried this dish but in the middle of ordering from Hunan Manor...will have to try it out!
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