A hand with chopsticks tosses cucumber strips, wood ear, shredded tofu and jellyfish in a large bowl as a wooden spoon pours on chili oil, two small jars of vinegar and sesame oil stand by, and a cucumber vine trails around.
Dressed and served cold
Introduction
The method of dressing raw or cooked-and-cooled ingredients with seasoning and serving them cold.
Cold tossing is the method of cutting raw ingredients, or cooked ones that have cooled, and tossing them with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil, garlic and other seasoning to be eaten cold. The Qing book Sui Yuan Shi Dan does not use the word liangban, but it records cold dishes dressed with vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil, such as eggplant, shredded dried tofu and jellyfish. Sichuan flavour profiles such as red oil and strange flavour are also used for tossed dishes, and the strange-flavour sauce is made with sesame paste, soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, sugar and other seasoning. Braised and sauced meats are also sliced and served cold, but they are first cooked in a master stock or a sauce, so they belong to Braised and Sauced Cooked Meats and are not cold tossing. Vegetables preserved with salt or by fermentation belong to Pickles.