A fast, fiery stir-fry of minced pork, flowering chives chopped small, fermented black beans, and red chili. The black beans scattered through the dish look like clusters of fly heads — hence the blunt name. Salty, spicy, pungent, and intensely rice-driving; a beloved fixture of Taiwanese rechao eateries.
Despite tasting Sichuanese, flies' head is a Taiwanese invention. By the common account it was created a couple of decades ago in a Taipei Sichuan-style restaurant, where a cook tossed leftover flowering chives with minced pork, fermented black beans, and chili — a staff meal that proved so popular it went on the menu, and because it spread through Sichuan restaurants it was long mistaken for a Sichuan dish. The vivid name is said to have stuck after a diner mistook the black beans for flies; the specifics differ between tellings. There is no such dish in authentic Sichuan cooking.
Tiny and punchy in every direction. The flowering chives stay crunchy and green with a sharp garlic-onion pungency; the minced pork is browned and savory; the fermented black beans burst salty and funky-deep; the chili brings clean heat. It is coarse, glistening, and aggressively flavored — a few chopsticks demand a whole bowl of rice.
The whole thing rides on the fermented black beans. Douchi are soybeans cured with salt and mold, their proteins broken down over time into glutamates and other amino acids, giving the dish a deep, concentrated savor far beyond its few ingredients. They are fried briefly in hot oil first to bloom that aroma. The minced pork is browned for Maillard depth; the flowering chives go in at the very end over high heat so they keep their snap and bright pungency instead of stewing soft.
Variations
Flowering chives are most traditional, but garlic chives or even green beans stand in. Some add minced garlic, dried shrimp, or douban chili paste; a little soy and sugar round it out. Heat ranges from mild to fierce depending on the cook.
On the Palate
Where Flies' Head sits in the Taiwanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 3
How it's made
5 steps · 10 min
- 16 min
Chop the flowering chives into tiny pieces; mince the garlic and slice the red chili. Rinse the fermented black beans.
- 21 min
Heat oil in a wok and fry the black beans and garlic briefly until fragrant.
Watch outFry the fermented black beans and garlic just until they smell fragrant — that quick bloom in hot oil is what releases their deep savor, but a moment too long and they scorch bitter.
- 33 min
Add the minced pork and stir-fry over high heat, breaking it up, until browned and the fat renders.
- 41 min
Add the chili and a little soy sauce and sugar, tossing to combine.
- 51 min
Throw in the flowering chives and stir-fry hard for under a minute until just crisp-tender, then serve.
Watch outThrow the flowering chives in last over the fiercest heat and toss under a minute — pull them while still crisp and bright green; stewed soft they lose their snap and pungency.
