I enjoyed this dish on my last visit to China and have experimented a couple of times. My version is here: http://www.jamieoliver.com:81/foodwise/article-view.php?id=4602 It uses ingredients fairly easily accessible in the west so people can make it at home - and tastes pretty similar to the version I ate in China. It has no beer or wine (many restaurants that serve it in China are 'halal' and don't use alcohol in cooking) and certainly no soy sauce (this dish has its roots in Central Asian cooking rather than Han Chinese cooking). When I make it, I use small thin skinned oriental peppers when they are available. Its worth hunting them down in an oriental market. Of course if you really can't find them then bell peppers could be used as a last resort - not authentic but better than nothing. Or you could always leave them out altogether. The exact amounts and mix of spices varies from cook to cook - there is no single 'authentic' version. So its well worth experimenting and making the dish your own. When I ate it in China it also had whole white cardamom pods in it. I hope you enjoy the recipe.
