After the enlightenment from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin Dynasty, to the Han and Jin Dynasties, Sichuan cuisine has shown a preliminary outline. The Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties witnessed the great development of Sichuan cuisine. In the Song Dynasty, Sichuan cuisine had crossed the Bashu border and entered Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty and Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, which was known to outsiders in Sichuan. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Sichuan cuisine was seasoned with imported peppers, which further developed the seasoning tradition of "respecting taste" and "spicy and delicious" that Bashu had long formed. After the late Qing Dynasty, a system with extremely strong local flavor was gradually formed, which was juxtaposed with Shandong cuisine in the Yellow River basin, Cantonese cuisine in Lingnan area and Huaiyang cuisine in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Basic characteristics of Sichuan cuisine

Up to now, Sichuan cuisine has three characteristics: wide range of materials, diverse tastes and wide adaptability of dishes, among which it is famous for its diverse tastes and ingenious changes. "Taste in Sichuan" is universally acknowledged.

Sichuan cuisine is famous for its spicy taste. Let's take a look at how Sichuan cuisine makes use of its spicy flavor, and we can compare its advantages with those of other places. When pepper is used together or alone with other spicy materials, there are ten different spicy tastes, such as dry spicy (dried pepper), crisp spicy (spicy shell paste), oily spicy (pepper), aromatic spicy (onion, ginger, garlic), sweet spicy (with onion or onion) and sauce spicy (Pixian douban or Justin douban). Among the 23 flavors commonly used in Sichuan, 13 are related to spicy, such as salty and slightly spicy home-cooked flavor, salty, sweet, spicy and spicy fish flavor, sweet, salty, sour and spicy harmonious strange flavor, red oil flavor, spicy, sour and spicy, spicy, burnt and spicy, dried tangerine peel flavor, prickly ash hemp flavor, salt and pepper flavor, etc.

Cooking method of Sichuan cuisine

There are more than 4000 kinds of snacks in Sichuan cuisine. These dishes consist of five categories: banquet dishes, simple meals, home-cooked dishes, three-steamed and nine-buckled dishes and flavor snacks. Today's popular Sichuan cuisine varieties are not only the inheritance of Sichuan cuisine varieties of past dynasties, but also the continuous development and innovation of cooking technicians.

Many varieties of Sichuan cuisine are made by various cooking methods. There are 30 kinds of cooking methods in common use, some of which are universal in China and some are original in Sichuan. For example, Sichuan's original fried, dry-fried, dry-cooked and home-cooked dishes are unique. The method of cooking, but oil, do not change the pot, temporarily want juice, hurry for short frying, a pot of vegetables, vegetables from pot to plate, suddenly fragrant. Dry stir-frying method: continuous stir-frying of filamentous raw materials with medium hot oil to dehydrate, mature and dry them. Dry burning method, slow burning with medium fire, makes the soup with rich flavor penetrate into the raw materials and naturally become the juice with rich alcohol and fragrance. For home cooking, stir-fry watercress with medium hot oil, add the soup to boil to remove the residue, add the ingredients, and then slowly cook it with low heat until it is cooked and tasty. Mapo tofu, which is familiar to foreigners in Sichuan, is home-cooked food.

Characteristic raw materials of Sichuan cuisine

Since Sichuan is called "Land of Abundance", there are certainly many and extensive cooking materials. Within the territory of 560,000 square kilometers, there are thousands of miles of fertile land, rivers and rivers, and rich products. Cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits can be described as six animals. Bamboo shoots, leeks, celery, lotus roots, pineapples and clams are evergreen all the year round. There are many excellent freshwater fish here, such as grouper, stone carp, Yu Ya and Yangtze sturgeon, among which the fish produced in Sichuan is especially precious. Even some odd jobs, such as tremella from Tongjiang and Wanyuan, Dictyophora from Yibin, Leshan, Fuling and Liangshan, Auricularia from Qingchuan and Guangyuan, Lentinus edodes from Yibin, Wanxian, Fuling and Dachuan, and konjac from most parts of Sichuan, stand out. Even tremella fuciformis, tremella fuciformis, green vegetables, lateral ear roots and purslane grown in fields and deep mountain canyons have become good materials for Sichuan cuisine. There are also Cordyceps sinensis, Fritillaria cirrhosa and Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. Gastrodia elata is a traditional Chinese medicine and a cooking material for health care and dietotherapy. Sichuanese pay special attention to taste in diet, so they pay great attention to cultivating excellent condiments and producing high-quality condiments. Zigong Well Salt, Neijiang White Sugar, Langzhong Baoning Vinegar, Zhongba Soy Sauce, Pixian Douban, Qingxi Pepper, Yongchuan Douchi, Fuling Pickle, Xu Fumeng, Nanchong Winter Vegetable, Xinfan Pickle, Zhongzhou Tofu Milk, Wenjiang Garlic, Beibei Lettuce Ginger, Chengdu Two Jin Pepper, etc. The quality is very good. Sichuan tea and Sichuan wine, which are closely related to cooking and banquets, are also recognized by the world for their high-quality varieties.