Sichuan Food-The Strongest Flavors in China

3 min read

The”Eight Styles of Chinese Cuisine”include Shandong food, Sichuan food, Guangdong food, Fujian food, Jiangsu food, Zhejiang food, Hunan food and Anhui food. Each of the eight styles has its own merit and all are equally matched in taste and flavor.

But when considering the widespread influence and popularity of these eight styles of Chinese cuisine among the Chinese people, Sichuan food will top the list.

The principal condiments served in Sichuan food consist of three items: chili, hot pepper and Chinese prickly ash. What is remarkable about Sichuan food is not limited to the singular numb-and-hot taste. As the saying goes,”Various combinations of five basic tastes will produce a hundred flavors.”In other words, the five tastes of salty, sweet, numbing, hot and sour can produce a profuse variety of flavors like numb-and-hot taste, bitter fragrant, home cooking, salty and refreshing, fish, lychee and even other interesting flavors. According to statistics, there are 23 traditional flavors in Sichuan food. The flavors of the new-style Sichuan food, whichhas been developed in the past few years by adopting qualities from other regions, number over 40. Aside from its “wide-ranging flavors,”Sichuan food attaches greater importance to “strong taste.”Sichuan people have almost reached the limit in pursuing and worshipping flavors, as if nothing except strong flavors can do justice to their sense of taste. Compared with Guangdong-style food, which advocates retaining food’s original flavor, the guiding principle of Sichuan food is that the food will dobattle with you until you can no longer taste the original flavors of the raw, unrefined ingredients. Whichever flavor it may be, it does not allow your tongue access to any other flavor. You can do nothing but resign yourself to the overwhelmingly rich, strong essence.

Talented Sichuan chefs who specialize in Sichuan style food are growing in large numbers;1,000 Sichuanpeople can come up with 1,000 classic Sichuan dishes.

Nevertheless, among all these classics,a few deservespecial attention.”Twice-cooked pork”and “Mapo bean curd”are two such instances. There is nothing unusual in the appearance of twice-cooked pork. The pork is first cooked and then fried. As simple and unadorned as thismethod seems, it demands an extremely precise duration and degree of cooking. When Sichuan people who have been living outside Sichuan for a long time return home, the dish that first comes to their minds is the twice-cooked pork. The name of “Mapo bean curd”stems from the marks on the face of Grandma Chen, the inventor of the dish. Amidst the minced chili and fresh gravy, the tender, delicate bean curd and the crisp, minced beef give off an appetizing aroma. Camphorwood and tea-smoked duck, totally absent the smell of smoke and fire, gives off a profound delicate flavor. It was once used by Premier Zhou Enlai to entertain Sir Charles Chaplin. Stir-fried, diced chicken with chili and peanuts originated from an official’s family of the Qing Dynasty. Fish-flavored shredded pork is a “grassroots dish of great renown” known to every household. All the aforementioned dishes are shining examples of the Sichuan-style dishes prepared through the “various combinations of the five basic tastes.”The last item worthy of attention is a rising star-water-boiled fish. Only in the past five years has this dish come to the forefront, but it has swept the country with amazing speed. The fiery chili and white fish slices, spreading as quickly as an epidemic, conquered everyone from all corners of China, the first being Beijing, and challenged people to re-think the size of their food containers, their resistance to the amount of oil used, their imagination about the extensiveness of chili and their ultimate tolerance for the numb-and-hot taste.

The mystery and wonder of Sichuan style food rest on its vigorous vitality and powerful appeal to people.

From the “Chengdu Snacks,”which are ubiquitous, to fancy restaurants with names like”South the Beautiful,” of which reputation seems more significant than the food itself, Sichuan food can be not only simple, but also complex, not only tradition-oriented but also fashion-oriented. In Beijing, Sichuan-style restaurants are always overcrowded; customers are forever standing and waiting for seats in restaurants with a”name.”Considering the eager anticipation and high expectations on their faces, it cannot be denied that Sichuan food has the strongest flavors in China.