Spicy dish sparks eatery success story

It was 1914 and Mao Zedong, one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, was still a student at a teacher training college in Changsha, Hunan province.

According to historical accounts, he was happiest on Saturdays, the day the students were served a kind of heavily spicy meat, slowly cooked on a mild fire. It was oily, but the young students enjoyed it.

That dish became one of Mao's lifetime favorites.