Kung Pao Chicken

Nine years ago my husband had a summer internship in Beijing. (I had voted for the other internship offer just down the road.) It was an amazing experience even thought it was challenging in many ways. One of the challenges was not surprisingly the language barrier. We were with a group of other American interns, some of whom spoke Chinese. When we were with them, we easily got to where we were going and got what we needed. Most of the time, however, we were not with them. A friend made me a little "cheat sheet" of phrases that even though I couldn't read or pronounce them, I could point to them. But then of course I couldn't understand the response.

We figured out the basics and were able to get around. Our apartment didn't have a very well-equipped kitchen, and it is extremely cheap there, so we ate out almost every meal. Since we were limited in our vocabulary, we were also limited in our menu. We ate lots of great stuff, and lots of unusual stuff. I learned how to say one of my favorite dishes, gong bao ji ding. (It makes it a little easier to remember because it rhymes with kung pao.) So we ate it frequently. A little too frequently. I haven't eaten it since.

I came across a recipe for kung pao chicken, and I remembered how much I enjoyed it long ago. I gave it a try. It didn't taste like kung pao chicken at all. Just chicken with a little soy sauce flavor and some peanuts. It didn't taste bad, it was just a disappointment. But now I've got it in my head that I want some good kung pao. I need a good recipe. Anybody got one?