Chinese Cuisine 1 Universally recognized as one of the great cuisines of the world, Chinese food in all its variety and complexity is unquestionably one of the finest pleasures a visitor can experience in China. There is a vast range of restaurants, from street stalls serving noodles and revolving restaurants atop hotels to roast duck specialists and converted courtyards where the imperial family once dined. 2 China's vast territory and long history have given birth to distinct regional cuisines over the centuries. The precise number of regional cuisines in China is still under dispute, but experts agree on at least four: Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong (Cantonese), and Jiangsu-Zhejiang. The following is the introduction of the four distinct regional cuisines. 3 Of the four major schools of China's culinary art, Sichuan cuisine is perhaps the most popular. It is well-known for its hot and pungent flavoring. Yet the highly distinctive pungency is not its only characteristic. In fact, Sichuan cuisine boasts a variety of flavors and different methods of cooking. A Sichuan dish can be hot, sweet, sour, salty, or tongue-numbing. Dishes typical of Sichuan are Twice Cooked Pork Slices, Spicy Diced Chicken with Peanuts, Dry-fried Shark Fin, and Fish-flavored Pork Shreds. One of the popular dishes is Pockmarked Woman's Bean Curd which was invented by a Chengdu chef 's pockmarked wife decades ago. The cubed bean curd is cooked over a low flame in a sauce which contains ground beef, chili, and pepper. When served, the bean curd is tender, spicy, and appetizing.