奇速英语

Hotpot, Mapo Tofu and Fish Filets in Hot Chili Oil（水煮鱼） —these dishes are well-known names in China. And they all have one thing ___1___common: They're very numbing （麻的） and spicy（辣的）.“Numbing and spicy” is a special phrase which is used ___2___（describe） Sichuan food. Generally, Sichuan cooks are good at using Pixian Broad Bean Paste（郫县豆瓣）. It   ___3___（see）as “the soul（灵魂） of Sichuan dishes” by many people. As ___4___result, they are quite different from the dried and spicy Hunan food and the sour and spicy Guizhou food.

However, to Sichuan dishes, there is much more than ___5___（they） numbing and spicy flavor（味道） because Sichuan cooks are able to create all kinds of flavors. So people praise Sichuan dishes, “Each dish ___6___（have） its own style; a hundred dishes have a hundred different flavors.” There are at___7___（little） 24 kinds of flavors in Sichuan dishes and only one-third of them are spicy. Some dishes are neither numbing___8___spicy, like sweet and sour fish.

Visitors to Sichuan are surprised at so many___9___（choice） they have for food. Sichuan is   ___10___（certain） a great place to start your Chinese food journey.