fire, fire, burning bright
It's stiflingly hot even in Europe, so I suppose it's not good if I serve you a dish of red hot chilli peppers. My mother, however, has a different point of view. She's quite proud of her Hunanese heritage, so when I read her an extract of an article about eating like a chairman, she was delighted indeed:
'Their spicy diet is said to make the people of Hunan hot and fiery in nature: in fact, so renowned are they for their valour and tenacity that the Chinese say you can't have a true army without them. Hunanese women are known for their amorousness, and sometimes for being a little shrewish. I've even heard them described as 'huo la la', a phrase that literally means 'fire-hot-hot', but is used admiringly to express their strength, straightforwardness and capability'.
A second helping of Hunanese cuisine is out on the following Sunday; remind me to buy a copy of The Observer tomorrow.