Chairman Mao Zedong, who hailed from spice-loving Hunan province, once said, "You can't be a revolutionary if you don't eat chiles." The Hunanese food writer Liu Guochu says Mao loved spice so much he sprinkled ground chiles on slices of watermelon.

My first experience with anything vaguely resembling the cuisine of Hunan was at a Levittown strip mall, and the Chairman would not have found it very revolutionary. In 1970s Long Island, Hunam Restaurant's spicy cold noodles and hacked chicken with sesame sauce were considered the height of regional Chinese cuisine. The only real chile presence at Hunam was the dish of "hot oil" that my old man would invariably ask for.