It can be said that one who does not experience Sichuan food ever reaches China. Sichuan cuisine is world-famous and forms a class of its own. The Chinese claim comprises more than 4000 dishes, of which over 300 are said to be famous
It's easily China's hottest and spiciest cuisine, often using huajiao, literally 'flower pepper', and a crunchy little item that leaves a numbing and strangely unfamiliar aftertaste-some compare it to spicy detergent. Sichuan chefs have a catch-cry that draws attention to the diversity of Sichuanese cooking styles: “baicai, baiwei,” literally “a hundred dishes, a hundred flavors.” Whether “a hundred flavours” is a characteristic Chinese exaggeration or not is difficult to say. There is, nevertheless, a bewildering cornucopia of Sichuanese sauces and culinary-preparation techniques.

Some of the more famous varieties are yuxiang wei, a really tasty fish-flavored sauce that draws heavily on vinegar, soy sauce and mashed garlic and ginger; mala wei, a numbingly spicy sauce that is often prepared with bean curd; yanxun wei, a “smoked flavor” sauce, of which the most justifiably famous is that used with smoked duck; and, perhaps most famous of all, the hot and sour sauce (suanla wei). The hot and sour soup, suanla tang, is eaten throughout China and is great on a cold day.