Ok, so maybe that's going a little far, but still, the two recent Sichuan cuisine feasts I cooked while in the UK certainly made up for in quantity what they lacked in flashy ingredients.

The first was during the　time I spent in my hometown, Hebden Bridge, when I cooked for 17 of my mum's friends. The menu for that evening was:

Cold Dishes
Steamed aubergines in a chilli-oil and black bean sauce
Belly pork slices in a garlic paste sauce
Cucumbers with garlic and vinegar

Hot Dishes
Mapo tofu
Dry-fried green beans
Courgette and egg stir-fry
Beef in a sweet-wheat sauce
Potato and green pepper slivers
Stir-fried spinach

Above is the table before everyone pounced. Because we were so many I decided to serve the food buffet-style; very un-Chinese it's true, but the assortment of dishes did look rather nice all on a plate together.

Clockwise from 9 o'clock are the potato slivers; green beans; tofu; rice; spinach; aubergines; pork; cucumber; courgette and egg; and the beef is in the middle.

To save myself the hassle of cooking 15 plus different dishes I just made double portions of everything; nonetheless, it did still take me almost 4 hours to cook it all, and that was with some help too! It was all totally delicious in the end though, if I do say so myself, and to my relief everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Thankfully the second Sichuan meal I cooked, about 2 weeks later in London, was far less high pressure, being only for 7 people. Same menu, more or less, lazy I know, but very nice it was anyway.

Mmmm...maybe if all else fails I can start up a Sichuan cuisine supper club when I move back to Britain...