Of the eight major schools of China's culinary art, Sichuan cuisine has enjoyed a worldwide reputation for being spicy and flavorful. It can be said that one who doesn't experience Sichuan food has never been to China.
The origin of Sichuan cuisine can be traced back to the Qin dynasty 2,200 years ago, its recognition as a distinct regional system took place in the Han dynasty (206BC-220AD)
Featuring the spicy and pungent flavors, Sichuan cuisine, with a myriad of tastes, emphasizes the use of pepper. The pepper was introduced into China from South America around the end of the 17th century. Since Sichuan’s climate is characterized by humidity and many rainy or overcast days, pepper helps reduce internal dampness. Thus since it came to Sichuan, it became a favored food flavoring in Sichuan Cuisine. It can be used in various ways. Sometimes it can be the main ingredient, or sometimes used as the secondary ingredient for seasoning.
While cooking, the pepper and prickly ash are always in accompaniment, producing the typical good tastes. Garlic, ginger and fermented soybean are also used in the cooking process. Sichuan cuisine boasts the fame that each dish has its own taste and the entire dish family comprises of hundreds of flavors, featuring the taste of hot, and sweet, sour, salty, or tongue-numbing. More than 30 methods of cooking are included - frying, sautéing, quick-frying, boiling, stewing, deep-frying and simmering. In particular, moderate stir-frying and boiling, and braising and stewing with soup are extremely unique. Statistics show that the number of Sichuan dishes has surpassed 5,000.Among the Sichuan dishes, the most outstanding ones are fish flavors, pepper powder boiled in oil, strange flavor and sticky-hot. The most popular dishes include the Sauté Sliced Pork with Pepper and Chili, Stir-fried Diced Chicken with Chili Sauce and Peanuts, Diced Chicken with Specially Hot Sauce, Mapo Tofu, Poached Sliced Beef in Hot Chili Oil, etc.
Sichuan dish is good at agile exertion and specific managing according to material, climate and the diners' requests. Sichuan concentrates on the changing of taste, which differs in thickness and heaviness. With a piece of half-fat, half-lean pork, Sichuan cooks can prepare a number of different dishes with different flavors, such as sliced pork cooked with rice crust, fried pork cubes, sweet and hot shredded pork, salted-fried pork slices, etc.
Besides of a great variety of dishes, Sichuan Cuisine enjoys the high reputation of its tasty snacks, including Eight-treasure Rice Puddings, Tea-stewed Ducking, Marinated Rabbit Meat, Pickled Vegetables, Slices of Beef and Assorted Entails of Oxen, Dan-dan Noodles, Lai Rice Dumplings, etc.
Sichuan cuisine consists of Chengdu, Chongqing and vegetarian dishes. Among the Sichuan cuisine, the Hot Pot is the most favored food throughout china. People sit around the table where lays a big wok full of hot, spiced oil or hot rich soup in the center and enjoy the hot pot together. Around the wok are placed a dozen plates of slices of raw meat and other ingredients, including the vegetable, fish or tofu. The diners pick up the raw ingredients and make a do-it-yourself. Like other Sichuan food, not all of the hotpot is hot and spicy. The development of the particular hotpot cuisine has been toned down for tourists with other flavorings such as sour vegetables and fish sauce, mutton soup, or beer and duck flavor.
Today as the development of production and the prosperity of the economy, Sichuan absorbs the strength of both the northern and the southern food to form the new Sichuan Cuisine style. With three to four thousand recipes, the diversified cooking ways and availability of ingredients enable visitors to find something to suit their own tastes in a banquet, or dinners, or snacks. It is complemented as "Food in China, taste in Sichuan." For the details of the Sichuan travel and sichuan cuisine, you can check http://www.china-
