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| | SICHUAN COOKING, Chengdu Tourist Information and Travel Guide at InfoHub.com |
 | | Often present in the same dish, Sichuan cuisine's two most definitive tastes are the manifold flavour - a blend of hot, salty, sweet and sour - and aromatic heat (mala), characterized by the use of spring onions and Sichuan pepper (huajiao, or flower pepper), with its soapy perfume and gum-numbing side-effects. |
 | | Typical dishes include hot and sour soup, tangerine chicken - cooked with the slivered, dried peel of local fruit - and mapo dofu, bean curd and minced pork swamped in a chilli sauce. |
 | | As in the rest of the country, texture also plays an important role in Sichuanese food, with the emphasis often on a chewy, dry effect, the result of prolonged cooking. |
| www.infohub.com /destinations/Asia/China/Chengdu/54873.htm (585 words) |
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