Cooking of the West

Generally most people believe Szechuan cooking to be totally, searing hot. It is not. There are hot dishes in Szechuan, to be sure, most of them flavored with or touched by the chili peppers grown in China’s largest province, but the Szechuanese will suggest that they eat these chilies, not because they like the heat, but because the chilies stimulate their palates and prepare them for more subtle dishes. As a matter of fact, a Szechuan banquet will have few, if any, hot dishes. I have included several so that our Szechuan banquet becomes a quintessential Szechuan menu containing both the hot and the non-hot.