Cold beef offal — tongue, tripe, heart — sliced thin and dressed in red chili oil with Sichuan peppercorn and toasted sesame.
Created in 1930s Chengdu by Guo Chaohua and his wife Zhang Tianzheng — street vendors on Changshun Street in Chengdu's old Manchu quarter who turned discarded offal cuts (lungs, tendon, tripe — the name 'fei pian' is a homophone refinement of 'fei pian' meaning 'scrap slices' — the cheap offal off-cuts) into a famous tapas-like cold dish. Customers nicknamed the couple 'Mr. and Mrs. Fei Pian'; the name stuck. Modern versions usually omit lung but keep the name.
1930s Chengdu, by Guo Chaohua and his wife He Tinghong — street vendors who cut up offal nobody wanted and dressed it with chili oil. Customers nicknamed them 'Mr. and Mrs. Fei Pian'. The slow brine isn't seasoning — it's collagen conversion, 2+ hours at 85°C.
Translucent slices of beef offal layered into a shallow plate, slick with red oil and pooled with chili sediment. The offal is tender but with bite — tongue chewy, tripe softer, heart densest. Sichuan peppercorn numb arrives 5 seconds after the chili heat. Cilantro and crushed peanut on top for crunch and green. Served at room temperature; cold from the fridge dulls the spice.
The slow brine isn't seasoning — it's collagen conversion. Beef heart and tongue have heavy connective tissue that needs 2+ hours at 85°C to break into gelatin while the muscle stays sliceable. The chili-oil dressing depends on the brine: a spoon of the spiced cooking broth in the sauce ties the offal's flavor to the dressing instead of letting them sit separately. Skip that and the dish tastes like two things in one bowl.
Variations
Original Guo couple version actually used lung; modern restaurants drop the lung but keep the name; Chengdu's Wu Ming Yuan keeps the dish closest to the 1930s recipe; Beijing chains add five-spice and tone the peppercorn.
On the Palate
Where Husband and Wife Lung Slices sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
4 steps · 30 min active + 3 hours 30 min waiting
- 1150 min
Simmer cleaned beef tongue, tripe, and heart in water with star anise, cassia bark, fennel seed, ginger, scallion, Shaoxing wine for 2.5 hours until tender. Cool in the broth.
Watch outKeep it at a bare quiver, not a boil, for the full 2.5 hours — you want the connective tissue melting to gelatin while the meat stays firm enough to slice. A hard boil toughens the offal and clouds the broth.
- 28 min
Slice the cold offal as thin as possible against the grain — 2mm or thinner. Arrange in a shallow bowl.
Watch outSlice the offal fully cold and against the grain, 2mm or thinner — you should almost see through it. Warm meat tears thick and chewy; the paper-thin cold slice is what soaks up the chili oil.
- 33 min
Mix the dressing: red chili oil with sediment, light soy, black vinegar, sugar, ground roasted Sichuan peppercorn, minced garlic, and a spoon of the cooking broth.
Watch outSpoon a little of the spiced cooking broth into the chili-oil dressing — that ties the sauce to the meat so it tastes like one dish, not offal and dressing sitting apart.
- 42 min
Pour dressing over the offal. Top with chopped peanuts, toasted sesame, scallion green, and cilantro. Serve cold.
