Kung pao chicken and the art of patience

One dish that you may not find elsewhere is Marshal chicken hotpot, named after Marshal Chen Yi (1900-72), one of the nation's founding fathers. The dish is devised from a Sichuan dish called lantern chicken with radiant spicy soup in a pot with a lid that resembles a lantern.

"In the early 1970s lantern chicken cooked by my father-in-law Wei Jinting at the old Beijing Hotel was one of Marshal Chen's favorites," Wu says. Later on, Wei renamed it Marshal chicken hotpot and has imparted his recipe to Wu Zhen.

Yu xiang rou si (fish-flavored shredded pork), is another featured Chinese dish given the traditional treatment at Restaurant Zen.

"A most critical ingredient of this dish is yu la zi, traditional Sichuan pickled chilies fermented in a sealed container with fish inside for a year," Wu Zhen says. "So there is a fish taste in that yu la zi chili sauce."

However, this traditional method of making the fish-flavored chili sauce is rarely seen in restaurants today because of the slow and complicated procedures; and people use spicy bean paste instead.

But Wu sticks to the original method, and his dish well proofs the "fish fragrance" although there's actually no fish involved in the dish.

At Zen, I also had a most healing Chinese dessert, walnut puree, an exquisite dessert soup of old Beijing-style delicacy. Rich and creamy even though there is no dairy added, this soupy dessert brings out an enchanting fragrance and aftertaste of walnuts and jujubes, the two main ingredients.

The dessert is such a wonder because not only does it delight your tastes bud, but also does good for your health, if you believe the widely held belief in China that walnuts help nourish the brain.

"These days many people want something new in their dining some creative dishes, but we look back in terms of recipes, trying to preserve the most authentic ones," Wu says.

"In a marketing sense we are bucking the trend, and it's hard to say whether what we are doing is a good thing. But one thing is certain: we feel honor bound to pass on the most precious culinary traditions to the next generations."

If you go

Zhi Can (Restaurant Zen)

Tuesday to Sunday: 11 am to 2 pm; 5:30 pm to 9 pm.

Third floor, 97 Qianmen Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing

010-8861-5783