Have you ever eaten Szechuan food? It's often fiery and hot. Can you recreate that fire at home? You'd be surprised at just how close you can come to doing just that. Szechuan cuisine, also known as Sichuan cooking, is named for the region in China from which it comes. It's such a flavorful type of cooking, incorporating many ingredients like chili sauce, black vinegar, Shaoxing wine and garlic. Some of the ingredients we'll use in this cookbook were adopted for the cuisine because of the poor weather in the Szechuan region. They have a great deal of rain and high humidity, so they use red pepper and chilies in many of their dishes. They help in reducing the dampness of the dishes, which is why their dishes are usually quite hot. The appeal of Szechuan cuisine goes beyond its pungency. The region offers fish dishes and they have more beef dishes than many other regions of China. Szechuan cuisine utilizes many different methods of cooking to make the most of the meats, vegetables and other ingredients in their dishes. They include stir-frying, sautéing, soaking in water, frying and dry-braising.Once you've made a couple Szechuan dinners, you'll be hooked. Turn the page and let's get cooking...