Szechuan cuisine

Szechuan cuisine is a style of cookery originating in the Sichuan province of western China, has an international reputation for being spicy and flavorful. Although the region Sichuan (川菜, pinyin: chuān cài) is now usually romanized as Sichuan, the cuisine that originated there is still usually spelled Szechuan in the West, and pronounced IPA {{IPA|}} or {{IPA|}} in English.

Related Topics:
Sichuan - China - Spicy - Pinyin - Romanized - IPA

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Some well-known Szechuan dishes include Kung pao chicken and Twice Cooked Pork. Although many dishes live up to their spicy reputation, often ignored are the large percentage of recipes that use little or no spice at all, including recipes such as Tea Smoked Duck.

Related Topics:
Kung pao chicken - Twice Cooked Pork - Spice - Tea Smoked Duck

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The chile pepper, a common ingredient in Szechuan cuisine (often used unseeded), was introduced to China from the Americas after European colonization of the Americas had begun. Chile peppers were perhaps introduced to the remote Sichuan province by Western missionaries. Previous Szechuan cuisine was not completely without spice, however. Sichuan pepper, or "numbing pepper" is an indigenous plant (fruit) that produces a milder spice, and is still a key ingredient in Szechuan food to this day. The reason for this emphasis on spice may derive from the region's warm, humid climate. This climate also necessitates sophisticated food-preservation techniques which include pickling, salting, drying and smoking.

Related Topics:
Chile pepper - Americas - European colonization of the Americas - Sichuan pepper - Pickling - Salting - Drying - Smoking

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Common preparation techniques in Szechuan cuisine include stir frying, steaming and basting. Beef is more common in Szechuan cuisine than it is in other Chinese cuisines, perhaps due to the widespread use of oxen in the region. Stir-fried beef is often cooked until chewy, while steamed beef is sometimes coated with rice flour to produce a rich gravy.

Related Topics:
Stir frying - Steaming - Beef - Ox

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Some common Szechuan dishes include:

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• Chengdu Chicken
• Kung pao chicken (宮保雞丁)
• Tea Smoked Duck (樟茶鴨)
• Twice Cooked Pork (回鍋肉)
• Mapo dofu (麻婆豆腐)
• Sichuan hotpot
• Fuqi Feipian
• Xue Zhou Yu
 
Szechuan cuisine: See also ►