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Basic Sichuan Cooking Technique

Sichuan Cuisine, known more commonly in the West as "Szechuan," is one of the most famous Chinese cuisines in the world. Characterized by its spicy and pungent flavors, Sichuan Cuisine, with a myriad of tastes, emphasizes the use of chili. Pepper and prickly ash are always in accompaniment, producing the typical exciting tastes. Garlic, ginger and fermented soybean are also used in the cooking process. Wild vegetables and meats such as are often chosen as ingredients, while frying, frying without oil, pickling and braising are used as basic cooking techniques.

It can be said that one who doesn't experience Sichuan food has never reached China.

Typical menu items: Hot Pot; Smoked Duck; Kung Pao Chicken; Water-Boiled Fish; Tasty and Spicy Crab; Twice Cooked Pork; Mapo Tofu

Hope the above menu food names don't confuse you, because it's really hard to accomplish a perfect English version menu for Sichuan Cuisine

This has been a headache for the Beijing government. Beijing 2008 Olympics will soon to come. Many foreigners will flow to China and come to Chinese restaurant. When they choose a Sichuan cuisine restaurant and began to see the menu, some of them may be shocked by the "horrible" food name and flee away.

See some of these absurd name now available in some of the Sichuan restaurant:

Manand Wife Lung Slice

Slobbering Chicken

Chicken Without Sexual Life

So funny to the last one. Actually these are all tasty food and beverage known to the Chinese. But they really need a better name.

Among the eight major cuisines of China, Sichuan Cuisine is the most popular.

Sichuan dish is good at agile exertion and specific managing according to material, climate and the diners' requests. More that 30 methods of cooking are included --- stir fry, sauté, deep fry, grill, preserve, bittern, bake and pickle.

As the production develops and economy prospers, Sichuan absorbs the strength of northern and southern food to form a fusion between a northern dish with Sichuan style and a southern dish with Sichuan taste. It is complemented as "Food in China, taste in Sichuan."

Sichuan concentrates on the changing of taste, which differs in thickness and heaviness. You can not make a Sichuan dish without chili, prickly ash and pepper. Chili, for example, can be used in various ways. Sometimes it can be the main ingredient, or sometimes it can be a secondary ingredient used for seasoning. The taste of Sichuan can differ largely according to climate and the diner's personal tastes. For instance, the hotness is quite rich in winter and spring because the weather is cold. However the hotness should be reduced by 30% in summer and autumn due to the warm and dry weather. The taste of Sichuan is very delicate and flexible. Therefore, Sichuan is famous for its rich, thick and heavy flavor in addition to its lightness. People who have eaten Sichuan keep praising it and can not forget the beautiful experience.

3 Characteristics of Sichuan Cuisine

Sichuan Cuisine traces back to the ancient Ba Kingdom (modern Chongqing) and Shu Kingdom (modern Chengdu) and is remarkable for its oily and hot taste . This is due to the foggy , cloudy and damp climate in the Sichuan Basin . Hot food is useful for dispersing dampness . Sichuan folks are keen for hot oxen's giblet pot , hot beancurd and other hot foods .

Another characteristic of the Chuan cuisine is its preparation of different dishes with the same raw material . With a piece of half-fat , half-lean pork , Sichuan cooks can prepare a number of different dishes with different flavors , such as salted-fried pork slices , re-cooked pork slices , sweet and hot shredded pork , fried pork cubes , sliced pork cooked with rice crust , sweet steamed pork chunks , salty steamed pork chunks , pork steamed with ground glutinous rice , white cut hot pork ,etc.

The third characteristic of the Sichuan cuisine is the tasty snacks , including hot ox-head meat , spiced chicken , tea-stewed ducking , marinated rabbit meat , pickled vegetables , dumplings , eight-treasure rice puddings ,etc.

Learn to cook yourself

Many travelers know Sichuan cuisine for its "hot and spicy" flavors or a few of its most famous dishes, but that is only the beginning. Sichuan cuisine is legendary in China for its sophistication and diversity. The regional cuisine boasts 5,000 different dishes.

Sichuan cuisine has enjoyed a worldwide reputation. However, most people immediately think of Sichuan food soon after it is mentioned as a hot or spicy food. It is unclear how the red pepper was introduced to Sichuan. You may wonder why the red pepper is so popular. Here is a common explanation. Sichuan has a humid climate that encourages people to eat strongly spiced foods.the red pepper may help reduce internal dampness. Some kitchenware used in cooking Sichuan food is also different from others.

Sichuan pepper is another important daily use ingredient in Sichuan cooking. It is known as huajiao(flower pepper).It is the Chinese pepper, and it looks like a reddish brown fruit. The peppercorn comes from the prickly ash tree. The pepper flower creates a most sudden numbing effect on one's tongue.

Sichuan cuisine so carefully balances color, smell, flavor, shape and nutrition that its dishes not only look pleasant and appealing, but also nutritious. In Sichuan recipes there are several hundred popular dishes. Sichuan cuisine is able to produce 100 different flavored dishes! Besides, Sichuan cooks provide dishes that are intentionally toned down for tourists at home and abroad. they have no difficulty in getting Sichuan food that suits their tastes whether it's in a banquet, outstanding lunches ,dinners, or snacks.

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