Bishan Stir-Fried Rabbit

The history of rabbit-eating in Bishan stretches back roughly two thousand years: Han-dynasty cliff tomb stone coffins unearthed in the 1980s at Mafang, Dingjia, and Guangpu carry carved scenes of raising, slaughtering, and roasting rabbits over open flames. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Bishan had become a key waystation on the Chengdu-Chongqing trade road, and its food culture flourished with passing merchants. After the county was re-established in 1728 (Yongzheng 6th year), a Dingjia local innovated the 'white-chopped rabbit' (白砍兔): whole rabbit simmered in seasoned broth, cooled, cleaver-cut, and eaten with dipping sauce — fast, simple, and flavorful enough to spread quickly among traveling merchants. By the late Qing, Dingjia Street held several specialty shops. During the Anti-Japanese War, as universities and government agencies relocated to Dingjia, Zhou Enlai and General Feng Yuxiang both praised the dish after tasting it. After 1978, roadside eateries along the Chengdu-Chongqing highway shifted rabbit from cold dish to hot stir-fry, building on a base of Pixian doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorn — the form that now defines Bishan rabbit.

The rabbit is chopped thumb-sized so every surface soaks up the brick-red doubanjiang oil. First bite hits with the rounded heat of Pixian bean paste and dried chili; Sichuan peppercorn then spreads an electric tingle across the lips and tongue — the má-là double act arriving in waves. The meat is lean and close-grained, tender from the blanch and briefly braised, with a faint wok-char at the edges from high-heat tossing. Served with celtuce, whose cool crunch cuts the fire cleanly after each piece.

The flavor base of Bishan rabbit is the low-heat doubanjiang frying: Pixian bean paste — long-fermented from broad beans and chili — releases its ester aromatics and glutamate compounds only when stirred in hot oil for two to three minutes, turning the oil brick-red and fragrant. Sichuan peppercorn's numbness is tactile rather than gustatory: hydroxy-alpha-sanshool in the pericarp activates TRPV1 receptors and low-threshold mechanoreceptors in the skin of the lips, producing a vibration sensation at roughly 50 Hz that layers with capsaicin heat into the signature má-là effect. Rabbit is among the leanest meats (roughly 1% fat), so a prior blanch removes blood and gamey odors before the high-heat wok-fry, where Maillard reactions across the meat surfaces create a char-fragrant crust while the low fat content keeps the interior from drying out.