"Taste" is the main characteristic of the Szechuan cuisine. From the basic taste of sour, sweet, numbing, hot, bitter, fragrant, salty, combined with the 18 methods of Chinese cooking, emerged the 7 most popular styles of the many ways of Szechuan cooking, namely Dry-fried, Hot & Sour, Numbing & Spicy, 'Fish Fragrant', Dry-sauteed, Strange Flavour & Red Oil.