Chongqing Taste

The current Chinese Cuisine system is composed of four main culinary traditions representing the cooking philosophy/techniques/styles and food ingredients characteristic of the four regions in Shandong (shorted for Lu), Sichuan (Chuan), Guangdong (Yue) and Suzhou (Su). Of course there are more than four regional culinary traditions and some people argue there should be eight or even ten main culinary traditions in China, from which you could sense a bit the diversifying feature in Chinese culture and civilization. If there’s a time machine and you could get to travel back to each Chinese dynasty and taste the food in its different directions, and each and every period would present you with a totally or slightly different flavor as food or cuisine is a representation of the climate, resources and customs of the time and place.

Unlike the northern cities which have more abundant food sources in beef and mutton, or the coastal cities which have more marine food sources, Sichuan located in southwestern China has more aquatic and poultry food sources to be applied to its cuisine. Needless to say that “Ma La” Spicy flavor is the main feature in Sichuan Cuisine nowadays, yet actually chili was originally imported from America via Europe during China’s late Ming and early Qing dynasty and was then applied to and became the main cooking style in Sichuan Cuisine.

Main Seasonings

Three Types of Peppers: Hua Jiao (Flower Pepper), Hu Jiao (Black/White Pepper); La Jiao (Chili)

Three Fragrant: Cong (Green Onion), Jiang (Ginger), Suan (Garlic)

Others: Soy Sauce, Vinegar, Doubanjiang (broad bean chili paste), Douchi (salted fermented soya beans)

What ingredients you need for making Sichuan dishes

Chengdu (Rong) Upstream Cuisine and Chongqing (Yu) Downstream Cuisine are two main branches under Sichuan Cuisine, they seem similar but actually quite different if you pay close attention to.

Chengdu dishes are usually called Guanfu (government officials) dishes as they usually use high class ingredients/food materials, with accurate proportion as per the recipes, good-looking appearance and mild taste. While Chongqing dishes are called Jianghu (common social life) dishes as they have rough appearance, use boldly a variety of cooking styles/food ingredients. Chengdu hot pot uses vegetable oil, while Chongqing hot pot uses animal oil (beef oil) with strong flavors.

Stay tuned, we will introduce the popular Sichuan dishes and how to make some of them in later posts.