Feature: Chinese chefs offer Sichuan cuisine at Confucius Institute in Dublin

A special banquet to promote China s food culture was hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University College Dublin (UCD) here on Wednesday night, attracting nearly one hundred local Chinese food afficionados.

Release time : 2019-05-20 14:58:44

source : Xinhua

Source: 699pic.com

DUBLIN, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A special banquet to promote China's food culture was hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University College Dublin (UCD) here on Wednesday night, attracting nearly one hundred local Chinese food afficionados. Former Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, China's new Ambassador to Ireland He Xiangdong, the Secretary General of Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Niall Burgess, and UCD President Prof. Andrew J. Deeks attended the banquet, alongside invited guests.

The event dubbed "Confucius Institute Banquet -- A Taste of Sichuan", gave participants a rare chance to enjoy authentic Sichuan-style dishes prepared by seven master chefs coming from Sichuan Tourism University (STU) in southwest China.

The dishes included two starters, four main courses and two Chinese-style desserts, followed by tea exclusively from the mountains of Sichuan province. On-the-spot bilingual introduction was provided by a food culture professor from the STU.

To meet the tastes of the Irish people, we have replaced chicken with locally sourced scallops in creating a new dish based on the famous Sichuan Kung Pao Chicken dish, and used the same locally sourced codfish to replace pork in making a new creation based on the Fish-Flavoured Shredded Pork dish," said Prof. Du Li from the STU.

Hu Jinxiang, a master chef of Sichuan cuisine who is also good at making dough figurines, the art of which has been proclaimed intangible cultural heritage in China, demonstrated his skills in dough sculpturing and sugar painting, which elicited significant interest from the guests.

Jointly organized by UCD's Confucius Institute and STU, the banquet feasted the guests with beautifully prepared, delicious Sichuan dishes while providing them a chance to learn how to prepare such dishes and hear the stories behind them.

"The banquet has also enabled the guests to know a bit more about the Chinese history