Over the weekend, a group of fellow teachers and I headed out for one of our favorite Changsha traditions: spicy bullfrog! Called 牛蛙 (niuwa, which literally means bullfrog), is a specialty of Hunan cuisine. Dinner at the Bullfrog Restaurant is the traditional first-group-dinner for the Yale-China fellows in Changsha every September. This weekend, we were introducing my roommate’s sister to the delicacy.
The dish comes to the table burbling away on a portable burner. You’ll note the proportion of red chilis to frog legs in the pan — this is not a dish for the spice-averse. In fact, Hunan Province isn’t really the place for the spice-averse. If you can take the heat, however, the frogginess is nothing to be afraid of. It tastes just like chicken.
Squint and it looks like a buffalo wing.
In addition to the bullfrog, we had a few of our other favorites (and plenty of Harbin beer, of course). Eggplant with green beans (茄子豆角, qiezi doujiao) is my standby choice when it comes to vegetables, and it’s usually not too spicy.
Address: The 牛蛙馆 (niu2wa1guan3) is located on Xiangjiang Lu (湘江中路, bordering the east side of the river) just around the corner from Laodong Lu (劳动路). Dinner for 8 cost 240 RMB, not including beer.
P.S. For a broader introduction to Hunan food, called xiangcai, check out Savour Asia‘s guide.
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