Sour, sweet, and spicy

Yushing pork is both an ordinary, affordable dish and a long-time classic of Sichuan cuisine. Its popularity and great taste matches that of Kong Pao chicken. Sichuan Fandian's (四川饭店) Prince Gong's Palace branch, a restaurant known to offer authentic Sichuan cuisine, is promoting dishes made in Yushing style throughout June.

Literally, Yushing (yu xiang) means "fish fragrance". It is believed that the chef uses a number of seasoning ingredients, such as spring onion, garlic, ginger, white sugar, vinegar, yellow rice wine, and natural honey, to produce a fish fragrance in the pork slice dish. But according to Yu Jianmin, executive chef at Sichuan Fandian, when the cuisine was invented, there was actually fish in it.

Legend has it that a Sichuan granny in the early 20th century was making a jar of chili sauce when some dried fish hanging nearby accidentally fell into the same jar. The granny used the finished chili sauce to fry pork and found it tasted really good. After that the dish became famous in Sichuan.