Sichuanese

This spicy Sichuan dish gets its layers of flavor from two different types of heat: fiery chiles and mildly numbing Sichuan peppercorns.

We tried making this oil with Sichuan peppercorns that were not ground but found eating them whole just too numbing. Like the red-chile oil above, it's the perfect thing for adding a final blitz of flavor.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from The Shun Lee Cookbook by Michael Tong. This Sichuan dish features a regional sauce, sometimes called "fish-fragrant flavor," that combines hot chili paste, garlic, ginger, scallions, vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce—but no fish!

Nixon's re-establishment of relations with China led Americans to discover, among other things, that there was more to Chinese cooking than the Cantonese dishes we had all grown up with.

This chilled noodle salad from Zygot Bookworks & Cafe is loaded with crisp vegetables.

This recipe was created to accompany Sophisticated Stir-Fried Rice and Szechuan -Flavored Country Style Spareribs .

Spicy Szechuan dishes were quite the thing in the seventies; around that time, pasta was also coming into its own. This recipe features ingredients that are widely available in the Asian foods section of most markets. If you like, add snow peas and sliced red bell pepper for some crunch.