Generally speaking, Sichuan cuisine originated from ancient Bashu and was formed under the cultural background of Bashu. According to the historical evolution of China-the serial number of dynasties, Sichuan cuisine has shown a preliminary outline in the Han and Jin Dynasties after the Enlightenment from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin Dynasty. Sichuan cuisine developed greatly during the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties. During 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 carried forward the long-established seasoning tradition of "respecting taste" and "spicy and fragrant" in Bashu area. After the late Qing Dynasty, it gradually formed a system with extremely rich local flavor, 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 recognized by the world.

Sichuan cuisine is famous for its spicy flavor. Let's see how Sichuan cuisine uses its spicy taste, and we can compare it with the advantages of other places. When pepper is used together or alone with other spicy materials, there are ten different spicy flavors, such as dry spicy flavor (dried pepper), crisp spicy flavor (spicy shell sauce), oily spicy flavor (pepper), aromatic spicy flavor (onion, ginger and garlic), sweet spicy flavor (onion or onion) and sauce spicy flavor (Pixian douban or Justin douban). Among the 23 flavors commonly used in Sichuan, 65,438+03 are related to spicy, such as salty and slightly spicy home cooking flavor, salty, sweet, spicy and spicy fish flavor, strange flavor with harmonious sweet, salty, sour and spicy flavors, and red oil flavor, spicy, hot and sour, burnt flavor, dried tangerine peel flavor, pepper and sesame flavor, salt and pepper flavor with different degrees of spicy.

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 dishes with nine buttons 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 stir-frying, dry-frying, dry-cooking and home-cooked cooking are all unique. Stir-fry method, but oil, do not change the pot, temporarily remove the juice, hurry for short fry, a pot of vegetables, vegetables from the pot to the plate, suddenly fragrant. Dry stir-frying method, using medium hot oil, continuously stir-frying filamentous raw materials to dehydrate, mature and dry them. Dry burning method, slow burning with medium fire, makes the soup with strong flavor penetrate into the raw materials and naturally become the juice with strong alcohol flavor. If it's a home-cooked dish, stir-fry watercress with medium-hot oil, add soup to boil to remove residue, add ingredients, and then slowly cook over low heat until it is ripe and tasty. Mapo tofu, which is familiar to foreigners in Sichuan, is cooked with home cooking.

Sichuan cuisine special raw materials

Since Sichuan is called "Land of Abundance", there must be many and extensive cooking materials. Within the territory of 560 thousand square kilometers, there are thousands of miles of fertile fields, 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, rock carp, Yuya and Yangtze sturgeon, among which the fish produced in Sichuan is very precious. Even some dry groceries, such as tremella from Tongjiang and Wanyuan, dictyophora from Yibin, Leshan, Fuling and Liangshan, auricularia from Qingchuan and Guangyuan, mushrooms from Yibin, Wanxian, Fuling and Dachuan, and konjac from most parts of Sichuan, are excellent. Even tremella fuciformis, tremella fuciformis, green vegetables, lateral ear roots and purslane, which grow in fields and deep valleys, 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 their diet, so they attach great importance to cultivating excellent condiments and producing and brewing high-quality condiments. Zigong Well Salt, Neijiang White Sugar, Langzhong Baoning Vinegar, Zhongba Soy Sauce, Pixian Douban, Qingxi Pepper, Yongchuan Douchi, Fuling Pickle, Xufu Mengwu, Nanchong Winter Vegetable, Xinfan Zhacai, Zhongzhou Tofu Milk, Wenjiang Garlic, Beibei Lettuce Ginger, Chengdu Erjin Bar 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.

Mapo tofu is the most popular in Sichuan cuisine. Its founder is Chen Mapo, and his birthplace is Wanfuqiaotou outside the north gate of Chengdu. Mrs. Chen has some pockmarked faces, which were named by people at that time. The tofu she made, carefully selected and matched, can achieve tender, smooth, hemp, fragrant and spicy effects, so it is famous all over the world. Once, when I talked to the chef of Sichuan cuisine about this dish, I learned that it takes three times to thicken this tofu to achieve the best effect.

According to the traditional genre, Sichuan cuisine is divided into Shanghe Gang (centered on Chengdu and Mianyang), Xiahe Gang (centered on Chongqing and Wanxian), Xiaohe Gang (Zigong and Yibin) and Zichuan (represented by Zizhong, including Weiyuan, Renshou, Jingyan and Fushun). Different regions, the flavor of Sichuan food is not good, and the color is slightly worse than others. Sichuan cuisine ranks first among the eight major cuisines in China, with a wide range of dishes. According to statistics, there are about 4000 kinds, including more than 200 kinds of famous dishes. Sichuan cuisine has always been grouped by region, and has formed five schools for a long time, namely, Chongqing Gang, Chengdu Gang, Dahe Gang, Xiaohe Gang and Neibang.

Chengdu Gang is characterized by the combination of meat and vegetables, that is, at the high-level banquet of shark fin seats, there must be a vegetarian dish and another spicy dish. Chengdu gang pays attention to color, smell and taste. The seasoning is Pixian watercress, Deyang soy sauce and Baoning vinegar, and the auxiliary materials are green, red and green vegetables, which are very beautiful. Time-honored "Zhengxingyuan" and "Rongleyuan" are famous for their famous dishes, such as Jinjita, braised snow pig, mutton soup with bamboo shoots and liver, boiled cabbage and so on. The famous Sichuan cuisine kung pao chicken, Mapo Tofu, Zhangcha Duck and jar meat all come from Chengdu.

Dajiang refers to the Yangtze River, and Dajiang Gang includes Leshan, Yibin, Lu Xian, Hejiang and Jiangjin. It is famous for its homely flavor, including frying, frying, steaming and roasting. Invented dishes include Meishan Dongpo elbow, Leshan boiled chicken, ginger vinegar chicken, bangbangji, Yibin winter melon cup, Lu Xian Yupai crispy belly, canned chicken, Hejiang chubby fish, Jiangjin pork slices, sesame balls and so on.

Xiaohe refers to the Jialing River, that is, the "Xiaohe Gang", which is located in the upper reaches of Jialing River and northern Sichuan. It is good at traditional folk dishes, such as hibiscus eggs, steamed pork with bean skin, braised pork, braised chicken, braised pork, fried omnivorous food, crisp meat in original soup and so on. All these are inventions. There are also famous Nanchong "Shunqing Mutton", North Sichuan bean jelly and Daxian Deng Ying beef, which are said to have been created by Liu Pingren in Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty. In addition, Hechuan Sliced Meat, Fried Meat with Douchi and Suining Glutinous Rice are also famous all over the world.

"Self-help clubs" are distributed in Zigong, Neijiang, Rongxian, Weiyuan and Zizhong. Zigong used to be a gathering place for salt merchants, with many famous dishes. Neijiang is the traffic artery between Chengdu and Chongqing, and there are also many restaurants. Zigong's boiled beef and chrysanthemum hot pot are excellent, and Neijiang's sand meat, bean fish, rock sugar tremella and assorted fruit soup are better.

Relatively speaking, Chongqing Gang is characterized by being able to learn from the strengths of different places, being brave in innovation and adapting to different customer needs. As early as the early years of the Republic of China, "Taolechun" restaurant was able to host advanced sea cucumber banquets, and "Liuchun Pavilion" and "Jiuhua Garden" were able to produce more than 200 large-scale barbecue seats, shark fin seats and Manchu-Chinese banquet. Among the treasures of Sichuan cuisine, Cordyceps duck, shell hen, pigeon egg of bamboo ginseng and roast suckling pig are the first in Chongqing. At the same time, low-end restaurants serving steamed meat, boiled pork, fried fat sausage and bean curd are also crowded with customers. Because of the rich aquatic products, Chongqing chefs are good at cooking fish. They are good at dry-cooking rock carp, silver carp with watercress, shark's fin with diced chicken and squid with sauerkraut.