Chengdu is famous for its Sichuan cuisine. UNESCO declared Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, to be "World Capital of Gastronomy" in 2011, recognizing the sophistication of its cooking. It has bold flavours, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavour of Sichuan pepper. It is one of the four major cuisines in China with its unique cooking methods and strong local flavors.
Hot pot has almost become the symbol of Chengdu. Whether you can eat spicy food or not, and whether you dare or not, you should have a taste of the authentic Chengdu hot pot to feel the hot atmosphere.
Chuan chuan, meaning something like “skewered food” is a sort of remix of the classic hot pot theme. Unlike traditional hotpot, however, the ingredients of chuan chuan are skewered on sticks and then placed in the boiling oil within a clay or iron pot, making it more convenient to pick up the food after it is cooked in the pot.
Glutinous rice cake, made of brown sugar and glutinous rice, is a traditional snack food in Chengdu. You can always see it in hot pot restaurants, since it can refresh your mouth form hot and greasy taste.
Yuxiang shredded pork sometimes translated as fish-flavored pork slices is a common dish in Sichuan cuisine. Yuxiang is one of main traditional flavors in Sichuan.Yuxiang shredded pork appeared in recent decades. Yuxiang is made of pao la jiao (Sichuan pickled chili pepper), Chuan salt, soy, white sugar, bruised ginger, garlic and green star but no fish. This seasoning has nothing to do with fish, instead imitating the seasoning and method which people in Sichuan use when cooking fish.The seasoning contains salty, sweet, sour, hot, and fresh tastes, making the food more delicious.
Twice-cooked pork or double-cooked pork is a traditional Sichuan dish. The dish’s ingredients include pork, which is simmered, sliced, and stir-fried; commonly stir-fried vegetables such as cabbage, bell peppers, onions, or scallions; and a sauce that may include Shaoxing rice wine, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, chili bean paste, and tianmianjiang bean paste. It has been considered as the top of Sichuan cuisine, the incarnation of Sichuan cuisine.
Sweet water noodles is a very famous and unique snack food in Chengdu, named because of its abundant soy sauce and sweet taste.
In Chengdu, people prefer to stuff various meat in Guokui, such as beef, pork…even popular bean jelly. Guokui stuffed with brown sugar is also very popular.
The features of chili oil dumplings are their thin but chewy wrappers, tender meat, with spicy and delicious chili oil.
It’s one of the most super famous Chengdu snack food, mainly made of sweet potato noodles, with some ingredients as pork intestines, canola oil, chili, pepper, etc.
Add proper amount of brown sugar with egg, ferment flour to mix well, bake and fry on the pan. Because the taste is very refreshing sweet and crispy, it becomes a famous dessert in Sichuan.Nowadays, some of them are filled with sesame seeds, walnuts, peanuts, cherries, etc., while others are filled with meat and vegetables to create a savory taste, making the variety of egg baked cakes more and more abundant.
It is one of the most popular dessert of Chengdu The vendor grabs a glutinous rice ball, divides it into three small parts, and throws them to the center of the drum leather chopping board filled with copper discs. Then they are rapidly rebounded to the bamboo basket filled with soybean flour. Finally, the vendor picks them up, pour a spoon of brown sugar juice on them before they are given to the buyers. It is very funny, and also they taste good.
It is a famous Chengdu dish created by Guo Chaohua and his wife Zhang Tianzheng. Generally, beef, ox heart, ox tongue, tripe and head skin are the main ingredients, which are marinated and sliced. The sauce contains chili oil, Sichuan pepper powder and other ingredients is covered onto it. The finely made dish looks bright and tastes tender, delicious and spicy, which is quite very palatable.