If spicy and hot sound good to you, sichuan food is a must have if anyone plans on ever visiting China. The food is mostly based off the idea of spices and seasoning, with many dishes leaving a fire in the mouth. There are the 'Three Peppers' (Chinese prickly ash, pepper and hot pepper), 'three aromas'(shallot, ginger, and garlic),'Seven Tastes' (sweet, sour, tingling, spicy, bitter, piquant, and salty), and 'eight flavors' (fish-flavored, sour with spice, pepper-tingling, odd flavor, tingling with spice, red spicy oily, ginger sauce, and home cooking) that are included in many dishes.
One favorite of mine is ma po tofu. It is real feast of stir-fried tender bean curd, minced beef, pepper and bean sauce.