Archive link From the article: Serendipity strikes again, I was just discussing Buldak as a food remedy in this thread today. Heat is one of the basic flavors (Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet is the title...
In the streets around Singapore’s touristy Bugis Market, at least 15 restaurants serving extra-spicy hotpot laced with Sichuan pepper have popped up in recent years, displacing the less-fiery Cantonese eateries that once dominated the area. An annual chile festival in Berlin, historically a hotbed of bland food, has grown from 500 participants in 2020 to more than 6,500 last year. In the US, “swicy”—a portmanteau marrying heat and sweet that’s trending on TikTok—is appearing on ever more restaurant menus.
Diners worldwide are increasingly seeking out palate-numbing foods that their parents or grandparents would rarely have considered—or even encountered. A 2024 survey by ingredient maker Kalsec found that two-thirds of consumers in a dozen major markets had jacked up the spice quotient of their meals in the previous year. One-third of China’s 1.4 million restaurants serve the peppery cuisines of Hunan or Sichuan provinces—which account for just over 10% of the mainland population. In the US, 95% of eateries feature at least one blazing menu item, with tongue-burning flavors creeping into pizza, burgers, beverages and even desserts, according to Datassential. “Spicy isn’t confined to traditional categories anymore,” says Claire Conaghan, an analyst at the research firm. “Heat travels well because it’s both familiar and adaptable.”
Serendipity strikes again, I was just discussing Buldak as a food remedy in this thread today.
Heat is one of the basic flavors (Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet is the title of a great Southeast Asian cookbook) and it's kind of amazing to me that it's taken so long to catch on in Western countries.
The hottest Capsicum peppers, Zanthophyllum (Szechuan pepper), and Piper (peppercorn) species aren't frost tolerant or have longer annual growing seasons than temperate climates accommodate easily, so there's some culinary history behind the dearth of spice.
Oh, hey, an example where an Oxford comma would be handy. This threw me off, because the article too makes it sound as though Sichuan is spicy, but it has exactly zero Scoville Heat Units. It...
The hottest Capsicum peppers, Zanthophyllum (Szechuan pepper) and Piper (peppercorn) species aren't frost tolerant
Oh, hey, an example where an Oxford comma would be handy. This threw me off, because the article too makes it sound as though Sichuan is spicy, but it has exactly zero Scoville Heat Units. It definitely makes your mouth feel funny, and it makes all water taste like salt water, but it's strange to see the article equate that with heat.
They (the English world) really ought to have done a better job with names when they failed to differentiate between peppercorns and pepper.
To be clear, Sichuanese (and Hunanese) food is spicy. While Sichuan peppercorn gets its name from being the region's signature thing, food from those provinces also generally contains plenty of...
To be clear, Sichuanese (and Hunanese) food is spicy. While Sichuan peppercorn gets its name from being the region's signature thing, food from those provinces also generally contains plenty of chili (fresh, dried, pickled, chili paste, you name it). Sichuan peppercorn definitely contributes to the eating experience in many dishes, but there are plenty of Sichuanese dishes that don't contain it. An extra-spicy hot pot will definitely contain lots of stuff that contributes to a Scoville rating in addition to any Sichuan peppercorn.
I once made a soup intended for four people (so imagine a pot for about 6-8 bowls full) and when I put a single knife-point amount of cayenne pepper into the pot, two of them hated it and one of...
and it's kind of amazing to me that it's taken so long to catch on in Western countries.
I once made a soup intended for four people (so imagine a pot for about 6-8 bowls full) and when I put a single knife-point amount of cayenne pepper into the pot, two of them hated it and one of them thought it was so spicy he wasn't able to finish his bowl.
Since then I'm no longer surprised. In fact, quite the opposite, I'm surprised spicy is catching on at all.
I love the stuff. I can handle a serious level of spicy, but I do think spicy needs to be tasty and a flavour enhancer more than it needs to be hot. Hot for hot sake is just a bit boring. Luckily, this spicy re(?)naissance means there are plenty of flavours available from around the world too so you can easily mix and match your spices and hot sauces to fit the flavour profile.
I have to post warnings on food I bring to potlucks. Much of the northern Midwest was settled by Germans and Scandinavians, whose cuisines didn't feature expensive tropical spices outside of...
I have to post warnings on food I bring to potlucks.
Much of the northern Midwest was settled by Germans and Scandinavians, whose cuisines didn't feature expensive tropical spices outside of baking for high holidays. Some of that baking is actually spicy.
I've even met people here raised in families so Lutheran or Seventh Day Adventist that black pepper was avoided as suspect for inciting lust. There's always at least one person exquisitely sensitive to anything even slightly spicy.
Anecdotally, I fairly recently moved to MN and I love spicy food. I frequently ask "but is it actually spicy?" when at restaurants and get told, "well, it's Minnesota spicy". lol
Anecdotally, I fairly recently moved to MN and I love spicy food. I frequently ask "but is it actually spicy?" when at restaurants and get told, "well, it's Minnesota spicy". lol
A year or two ago, my friends and I were talking about spicy foods. At some point, one of our friends, was questioning how spicy something was and said, "Like really spicy?...Like Taco Bell...
A year or two ago, my friends and I were talking about spicy foods. At some point, one of our friends, was questioning how spicy something was and said, "Like really spicy?...Like Taco Bell spicy?" There was silence for like two seconds, before the rest of us busted up laughing. Taco Bell is spicy to you, man? Wut?!
Of course, Mr. "Taco Bell Spicy" here is our resident Minnesotan, born and raised.
Yeah, it's comical, but very true to the stereotype. The number of times people have offered me Frank's or Cholula when I want something spicy is way too high. I started bringing bottles of hot...
Yeah, it's comical, but very true to the stereotype. The number of times people have offered me Frank's or Cholula when I want something spicy is way too high. I started bringing bottles of hot sauce with me when I get any kind of Mexican food. People give me weird looks when I pull it out of my pocket lol
There's a Nepalese restaurant in Minneapolis named "Himalayan Restaurant" that actually delivered when I asked for "Nepalese 10 peppers hot". Seriously sweaty, and my boss (who's another pepper...
There's a Nepalese restaurant in Minneapolis named "Himalayan Restaurant" that actually delivered when I asked for "Nepalese 10 peppers hot". Seriously sweaty, and my boss (who's another pepper fan) was in awe.
I have actually found a few places around here (also Twin Cities) that do have spicy food, but they are definitely a rarity. I finally convinced my local Thai place that they can stop ignoring my...
I have actually found a few places around here (also Twin Cities) that do have spicy food, but they are definitely a rarity. I finally convinced my local Thai place that they can stop ignoring my "Thai Hot" requests.
In Sichuan cuisine, it's common to use dried chili peppers whole (or chopped with the insides gutted out), which adds a lot of flavor without too much heat. You can then eat the chilis to add more...
I love the stuff. I can handle a serious level of spicy, but I do think spicy needs to be tasty and a flavour enhancer more than it needs to be hot. Hot for hot sake is just a bit boring.
In Sichuan cuisine, it's common to use dried chili peppers whole (or chopped with the insides gutted out), which adds a lot of flavor without too much heat. You can then eat the chilis to add more spice if wanted. Incredibly tasty, unlike some super spicy food that almost taste bitter from how strong the capsicum is.
I'll push back on this, as I believe spice heat is a mouthfeel that travels via the trigeminal nerve as opposed to a basic taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami) which are triggered by a loss...
Heat is one of the basic flavors
I'll push back on this, as I believe spice heat is a mouthfeel that travels via the trigeminal nerve as opposed to a basic taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami) which are triggered by a loss of the electro-chemical gradient across taste cell membranes, either because of exposure to the ions themselves (in the case of salty or sour) or the triggering of G-protein coupled receptors (sweet and bitter).
You're not wrong about the physiology of "heat" perception, but capsaicin and peppers in general have distinctive tastes, so I'm not sure it's possible to separate the sensation of heat from flavor.
You're not wrong about the physiology of "heat" perception, but capsaicin and peppers in general have distinctive tastes, so I'm not sure it's possible to separate the sensation of heat from flavor.
As a sensory scientist, I can assure you it is. Though the perceived heat does interfere to some extent, trained tasters can distinguish them. Edit: to elaborate, most of flavor is actually aroma,...
As a sensory scientist, I can assure you it is. Though the perceived heat does interfere to some extent, trained tasters can distinguish them.
Edit: to elaborate, most of flavor is actually aroma, so if the pepper variety flavor variations extend beyond the five basic tastes, then we are studying their aroma, which means we can avoid the heat in our sensory panel testing by not putting the samples in our mouth.
I appreciate your perspective and knowledge. At the same time, I think it's worth recognizing that most people don't process their sensory experiences with the granularity that trained tasters do...
I appreciate your perspective and knowledge. At the same time, I think it's worth recognizing that most people don't process their sensory experiences with the granularity that trained tasters do (I say this with experience from the wine industry), and report on spice heat as "flavor".
Oh yes, I'm well aware of the commonality of the misuse of the term 'flavor'. But when you talk about "distinctive differences" between pepper perception there are only three categories: spice...
Oh yes, I'm well aware of the commonality of the misuse of the term 'flavor'.
But when you talk about "distinctive differences" between pepper perception there are only three categories: spice level (so obviously different among varieties that it is not worth including in this convo), basic tastes (minimal, also not worth discussing), and that only leaves aroma.
So we don't even need to get into the granularity that descriptive profiling would offer, since I'm just trying to properly bucket the types of experiences into the proper categories.
Sichuan pepper (aka mala) is interesting in that I don't find it to be incredibly spicy, but it more has the property of providing a sort of numbing sensation while eating it. I have friends who...
Sichuan pepper (aka mala) is interesting in that I don't find it to be incredibly spicy, but it more has the property of providing a sort of numbing sensation while eating it. I have friends who love it because of that and others who especially hate it.
I haven't been to Singapore in awhile, but mala is also popular in Malaysia. I remember needing to look up what mala was the first time I came to Malaysia as I had never heard of it before then. Sichuan pepper has a history of being banned in the US due to a concern of a potential cross contamination of a type of citrus disease, ban was ended in 2005, but since then I don't think it penetrated into the US market. A global food trend could help with that and my tin foil hat makes me wonder if China decided to artificially create this trend on TikTok to help them export this food.
If you have mala near you, I'd suggest giving if a try. I enjoy it everyone and then, and find the sensation unique and a fun change of pace every now and then.
I similarly don't have the same spice tolerance problems with Sichuan peppercorns as with chilis, where I need to build up a tolerance to handle spicier food, and they're definitely a unique...
I similarly don't have the same spice tolerance problems with Sichuan peppercorns as with chilis, where I need to build up a tolerance to handle spicier food, and they're definitely a unique sensation. That said, I think it'd be hard to find a Sichuanese dish that is mala but not also hot from chilis.
I previously thought that szchuan peppercorn was banned or at least rare, but it turns out the reason why it’s so hard to find, even in Asian markets, is that for whatever reason it’s being sold...
I previously thought that szchuan peppercorn was banned or at least rare, but it turns out the reason why it’s so hard to find, even in Asian markets, is that for whatever reason it’s being sold as “prickly ash”.
Hm, maybe it would seem more uncommon in, like, midwestern US or something where most of the "chinese" food is panda express, but generally sichuan/chengdu style food (e.g, very spicy, mala) is...
Hm, maybe it would seem more uncommon in, like, midwestern US or something where most of the "chinese" food is panda express, but generally sichuan/chengdu style food (e.g, very spicy, mala) is probably the most popular single regional type of Chinese food in the US (and in China, for that matter - Shanghai has more sichuan-style restaurants than Shanghai style restaurants last time I went), and has been for a while.
Yeah, the article itself even says that Sichuanese cuisine is super widely popular within China itself. In my experience outside China, anywhere with even a small Chinatown will doubtless have at...
Yeah, the article itself even says that Sichuanese cuisine is super widely popular within China itself. In my experience outside China, anywhere with even a small Chinatown will doubtless have at least one Sichuanese place. As someone who's in love with 鱼香 and can only imperfectly recreate it at home, I'm certainly not complaining about its existing (and apparently rising) popularity!
Is 鱼香 created by wok hei (wok air? Hot air?) ? Super hot huge wok over open flame and tossed? I never really thought about it very much since I have not tried to create it all home. What does one...
Is 鱼香 created by wok hei (wok air? Hot air?) ? Super hot huge wok over open flame and tossed? I never really thought about it very much since I have not tried to create it all home. What does one have to do?
Wok hei has to do with the method of stir frying over veur high heat that is indeed hard to impossible to replicate at home, but it's different from what I mean here. 鱼香 is a particular flavor...
Wok hei has to do with the method of stir frying over veur high heat that is indeed hard to impossible to replicate at home, but it's different from what I mean here. 鱼香 is a particular flavor profile/sauce used in several dishes (pork slivers and eggplant being the most common afaik) and while the approximation I can make at home is tasty, it doesn't ever taste quite the same as at a restaurant. It's possible that's because of wok hei but I think it's more likely an issue with my ingredients and ratios not being the same.
Oh that means once you nail the recipe you'd have it down pat! I have only had it in that one specific pork shred eggplant dish, and didn't register it as a kind of flavour one could apply in any...
Oh that means once you nail the recipe you'd have it down pat! I have only had it in that one specific pork shred eggplant dish, and didn't register it as a kind of flavour one could apply in any other dish. Is there fish sauce?
Despite the name, it actually contains no fish products at all. There's a old wives tale that it was invented because someone returned to Sichuan from somewhere coastal and was trying to replicate...
Despite the name, it actually contains no fish products at all. There's a old wives tale that it was invented because someone returned to Sichuan from somewhere coastal and was trying to replicate the flavor of fish, but that's certainly not true (though it is funny).
Chinese Cooking Demystified has a good video on how to make yuxiang anything, and they also mention some tweaks/changes to their sauce recipe in their recipe for yuxiang omelette in this later video with some spicy sichuanese dishes. These are what have gotten me as close as possible, but getting it quite right consistently is something I'm not fantastic at. So far I think I prefer cooking with the laoganma pickled chilis to using sichuan doubanjiang, but I suspect this ingredient is the biggest difference between my recipe and a restaurant's aside from just technique.
And I have zero desire to cook eggplant myself at home bc it was annoying af the one time I tried it, so I usually use it for just whatever stir fry I'm feeling at the moment, rather than anything traditional.
I got very lucky in the Midwestern U.S. metro area where I grew up; there were Sichuan, Hunan, and Hainanese restaurants accessible, as well as Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Mexican, Korean, and...
I got very lucky in the Midwestern U.S. metro area where I grew up; there were Sichuan, Hunan, and Hainanese restaurants accessible, as well as Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Mexican, Korean, and regional Indian. Pretty much any heat level you could desire.
These days, it's a several hour trip to reach anything like the same food diversity - you're not wrong about most of the U.S. Midwest leaning bland. I get most of my flaming hotness needs from my own cooking. But there are at least two restaurants where I live now that do passable hot pot, and that's not something I can easily make for a two-person household.
I grew up in Oregon near Portland and I'd never encountered it. It very well could be the Chinese restaurants I visited didn't serve it, or I just never noticed it as an option and my ethnically...
I grew up in Oregon near Portland and I'd never encountered it. It very well could be the Chinese restaurants I visited didn't serve it, or I just never noticed it as an option and my ethnically Chinese friends weren't fans of it.
I may have painted with too broad a brush from my limited experience
I didn't realize until I moved away that the Midwest has a reputation for not liking spicy food. I must have been in a little hotspot of spiciness, even the family sausage recipe was too spicy for...
I didn't realize until I moved away that the Midwest has a reputation for not liking spicy food. I must have been in a little hotspot of spiciness, even the family sausage recipe was too spicy for my Seattle-raised friends to like at all.
I find that Sichuan pepper has flavor as well as mala, and I love that flavor. I wind up dusting many of the dishes I make (especially fried rice) with ground Sichuan pepper just to give the taste...
I find that Sichuan pepper has flavor as well as mala, and I love that flavor. I wind up dusting many of the dishes I make (especially fried rice) with ground Sichuan pepper just to give the taste a little extra something.
There is definitely a flavor that goes beyond the mala feeling that I very much enjoy. I wrote this comment soon after waking up before I had my morning coffee, so I think I went a little light on...
There is definitely a flavor that goes beyond the mala feeling that I very much enjoy. I wrote this comment soon after waking up before I had my morning coffee, so I think I went a little light on a few points I would have added.
I've not tried adding it to other dishes like that, and will have to pick up some to give that a try!
I sometimes forget that I enjoy spicy food, because most people around me equate spicy with chili. And I don't like where the heat from chili lands: in the throat. But I do enjoy lots of spicy...
I sometimes forget that I enjoy spicy food, because most people around me equate spicy with chili. And I don't like where the heat from chili lands: in the throat.
But I do enjoy lots of spicy things that feel hot/tingly in different parts of the mouth, tongue and nose, like: yellow mustard (nose), ginger (roof of mouth), fake wasabi aka horseradish (half nose + sides of tongue), raw garlic (whole mouth besides roof), raw onions (mostly tongue), white pepper (front of tongue + front teeth) (black pepper is for taste because if used for heat it travels a bit to close to the throat).
I recently got to experiment a little with Sichuan pepper and as many have mentioned it feels hot/numbing in the front of mouth which is nice.
Admittedly it requires a bit of effort to reach the levels of chili-hotness with my preferred ingredients and compared to "all the cool kids" my food is normally very mild, I just wanted to add that it matters where it's hot not only that it's hot.
You might be interested in the "kitchen salt" seasoning mix I encountered in culinary school - kosher salt pre-seasoned with black pepper, white pepper, and cayenne. There aren't any specific...
You might be interested in the "kitchen salt" seasoning mix I encountered in culinary school - kosher salt pre-seasoned with black pepper, white pepper, and cayenne. There aren't any specific proportions, it's something we learned to do by eye. If I had to guess, it's about 1 cup salt, 1T black pepper, 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp cayenne.
The theory is that the three peppers stimulate taste receptors throughout the month, which intensifies sensitivity to flavors other than pepper.
It's so interesting how fast you can build tolerance to spicy food and start craving it if you insist a bit. I used to not be able to tolerate even Tabasco and the first time I tried Buldak, the...
It's so interesting how fast you can build tolerance to spicy food and start craving it if you insist a bit. I used to not be able to tolerate even Tabasco and the first time I tried Buldak, the much less spicy cheese flavored version, I thought it was insane someone could enjoy that. Now I'm watching the TikTok video on the article and thinking I should probably have that for lunch today.
Archive link
From the article:
Serendipity strikes again, I was just discussing Buldak as a food remedy in this thread today.
Heat is one of the basic flavors (Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet is the title of a great Southeast Asian cookbook) and it's kind of amazing to me that it's taken so long to catch on in Western countries.
The hottest Capsicum peppers, Zanthophyllum (Szechuan pepper), and Piper (peppercorn) species aren't frost tolerant or have longer annual growing seasons than temperate climates accommodate easily, so there's some culinary history behind the dearth of spice.
Oh, hey, an example where an Oxford comma would be handy. This threw me off, because the article too makes it sound as though Sichuan is spicy, but it has exactly zero Scoville Heat Units. It definitely makes your mouth feel funny, and it makes all water taste like salt water, but it's strange to see the article equate that with heat.
They (the English world) really ought to have done a better job with names when they failed to differentiate between peppercorns and pepper.
To be clear, Sichuanese (and Hunanese) food is spicy. While Sichuan peppercorn gets its name from being the region's signature thing, food from those provinces also generally contains plenty of chili (fresh, dried, pickled, chili paste, you name it). Sichuan peppercorn definitely contributes to the eating experience in many dishes, but there are plenty of Sichuanese dishes that don't contain it. An extra-spicy hot pot will definitely contain lots of stuff that contributes to a Scoville rating in addition to any Sichuan peppercorn.
The most classic málà (麻辣) Sichuan spice mix is a balance of numbing and burning flavors!
Fixed that dang comma. I'm usually consistent in following Oxford style, but that one eluded me.
I once made a soup intended for four people (so imagine a pot for about 6-8 bowls full) and when I put a single knife-point amount of cayenne pepper into the pot, two of them hated it and one of them thought it was so spicy he wasn't able to finish his bowl.
Since then I'm no longer surprised. In fact, quite the opposite, I'm surprised spicy is catching on at all.
I love the stuff. I can handle a serious level of spicy, but I do think spicy needs to be tasty and a flavour enhancer more than it needs to be hot. Hot for hot sake is just a bit boring. Luckily, this spicy re(?)naissance means there are plenty of flavours available from around the world too so you can easily mix and match your spices and hot sauces to fit the flavour profile.
I have to post warnings on food I bring to potlucks.
Much of the northern Midwest was settled by Germans and Scandinavians, whose cuisines didn't feature expensive tropical spices outside of baking for high holidays. Some of that baking is actually spicy.
I've even met people here raised in families so Lutheran or Seventh Day Adventist that black pepper was avoided as suspect for inciting lust. There's always at least one person exquisitely sensitive to anything even slightly spicy.
Anecdotally, I fairly recently moved to MN and I love spicy food. I frequently ask "but is it actually spicy?" when at restaurants and get told, "well, it's Minnesota spicy". lol
A year or two ago, my friends and I were talking about spicy foods. At some point, one of our friends, was questioning how spicy something was and said, "Like really spicy?...Like Taco Bell spicy?" There was silence for like two seconds, before the rest of us busted up laughing. Taco Bell is spicy to you, man? Wut?!
Of course, Mr. "Taco Bell Spicy" here is our resident Minnesotan, born and raised.
Yeah, it's comical, but very true to the stereotype. The number of times people have offered me Frank's or Cholula when I want something spicy is way too high. I started bringing bottles of hot sauce with me when I get any kind of Mexican food. People give me weird looks when I pull it out of my pocket lol
There's a Nepalese restaurant in Minneapolis named "Himalayan Restaurant" that actually delivered when I asked for "Nepalese 10 peppers hot". Seriously sweaty, and my boss (who's another pepper fan) was in awe.
I have actually found a few places around here (also Twin Cities) that do have spicy food, but they are definitely a rarity. I finally convinced my local Thai place that they can stop ignoring my "Thai Hot" requests.
In Sichuan cuisine, it's common to use dried chili peppers whole (or chopped with the insides gutted out), which adds a lot of flavor without too much heat. You can then eat the chilis to add more spice if wanted. Incredibly tasty, unlike some super spicy food that almost taste bitter from how strong the capsicum is.
I'll push back on this, as I believe spice heat is a mouthfeel that travels via the trigeminal nerve as opposed to a basic taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami) which are triggered by a loss of the electro-chemical gradient across taste cell membranes, either because of exposure to the ions themselves (in the case of salty or sour) or the triggering of G-protein coupled receptors (sweet and bitter).
You're not wrong about the physiology of "heat" perception, but capsaicin and peppers in general have distinctive tastes, so I'm not sure it's possible to separate the sensation of heat from flavor.
As a sensory scientist, I can assure you it is. Though the perceived heat does interfere to some extent, trained tasters can distinguish them.
Edit: to elaborate, most of flavor is actually aroma, so if the pepper variety flavor variations extend beyond the five basic tastes, then we are studying their aroma, which means we can avoid the heat in our sensory panel testing by not putting the samples in our mouth.
I appreciate your perspective and knowledge. At the same time, I think it's worth recognizing that most people don't process their sensory experiences with the granularity that trained tasters do (I say this with experience from the wine industry), and report on spice heat as "flavor".
Oh yes, I'm well aware of the commonality of the misuse of the term 'flavor'.
But when you talk about "distinctive differences" between pepper perception there are only three categories: spice level (so obviously different among varieties that it is not worth including in this convo), basic tastes (minimal, also not worth discussing), and that only leaves aroma.
So we don't even need to get into the granularity that descriptive profiling would offer, since I'm just trying to properly bucket the types of experiences into the proper categories.
Sichuan pepper (aka mala) is interesting in that I don't find it to be incredibly spicy, but it more has the property of providing a sort of numbing sensation while eating it. I have friends who love it because of that and others who especially hate it.
I haven't been to Singapore in awhile, but mala is also popular in Malaysia. I remember needing to look up what mala was the first time I came to Malaysia as I had never heard of it before then. Sichuan pepper has a history of being banned in the US due to a concern of a potential cross contamination of a type of citrus disease, ban was ended in 2005, but since then I don't think it penetrated into the US market. A global food trend could help with that and my tin foil hat makes me wonder if China decided to artificially create this trend on TikTok to help them export this food.
If you have mala near you, I'd suggest giving if a try. I enjoy it everyone and then, and find the sensation unique and a fun change of pace every now and then.
I similarly don't have the same spice tolerance problems with Sichuan peppercorns as with chilis, where I need to build up a tolerance to handle spicier food, and they're definitely a unique sensation. That said, I think it'd be hard to find a Sichuanese dish that is mala but not also hot from chilis.
By definition, it shouldn't exist since málà is literally "numbing" and "burning" spices!
I previously thought that szchuan peppercorn was banned or at least rare, but it turns out the reason why it’s so hard to find, even in Asian markets, is that for whatever reason it’s being sold as “prickly ash”.
Hm, maybe it would seem more uncommon in, like, midwestern US or something where most of the "chinese" food is panda express, but generally sichuan/chengdu style food (e.g, very spicy, mala) is probably the most popular single regional type of Chinese food in the US (and in China, for that matter - Shanghai has more sichuan-style restaurants than Shanghai style restaurants last time I went), and has been for a while.
Yeah, the article itself even says that Sichuanese cuisine is super widely popular within China itself. In my experience outside China, anywhere with even a small Chinatown will doubtless have at least one Sichuanese place. As someone who's in love with 鱼香 and can only imperfectly recreate it at home, I'm certainly not complaining about its existing (and apparently rising) popularity!
Is 鱼香 created by wok hei (wok air? Hot air?) ? Super hot huge wok over open flame and tossed? I never really thought about it very much since I have not tried to create it all home. What does one have to do?
Wok hei has to do with the method of stir frying over veur high heat that is indeed hard to impossible to replicate at home, but it's different from what I mean here. 鱼香 is a particular flavor profile/sauce used in several dishes (pork slivers and eggplant being the most common afaik) and while the approximation I can make at home is tasty, it doesn't ever taste quite the same as at a restaurant. It's possible that's because of wok hei but I think it's more likely an issue with my ingredients and ratios not being the same.
Oh that means once you nail the recipe you'd have it down pat! I have only had it in that one specific pork shred eggplant dish, and didn't register it as a kind of flavour one could apply in any other dish. Is there fish sauce?
Despite the name, it actually contains no fish products at all. There's a old wives tale that it was invented because someone returned to Sichuan from somewhere coastal and was trying to replicate the flavor of fish, but that's certainly not true (though it is funny).
Chinese Cooking Demystified has a good video on how to make yuxiang anything, and they also mention some tweaks/changes to their sauce recipe in their recipe for yuxiang omelette in this later video with some spicy sichuanese dishes. These are what have gotten me as close as possible, but getting it quite right consistently is something I'm not fantastic at. So far I think I prefer cooking with the laoganma pickled chilis to using sichuan doubanjiang, but I suspect this ingredient is the biggest difference between my recipe and a restaurant's aside from just technique.
And I have zero desire to cook eggplant myself at home bc it was annoying af the one time I tried it, so I usually use it for just whatever stir fry I'm feeling at the moment, rather than anything traditional.
Oh very cool, thanks!
I got very lucky in the Midwestern U.S. metro area where I grew up; there were Sichuan, Hunan, and Hainanese restaurants accessible, as well as Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Mexican, Korean, and regional Indian. Pretty much any heat level you could desire.
These days, it's a several hour trip to reach anything like the same food diversity - you're not wrong about most of the U.S. Midwest leaning bland. I get most of my flaming hotness needs from my own cooking. But there are at least two restaurants where I live now that do passable hot pot, and that's not something I can easily make for a two-person household.
I grew up in Indianapolis, kind of the prototypical large-but-not-mega Midwestern US city, and we had all these as well. Now I feel lucky, too.
I miss having access to Hainanese food. ;_; or any ethnically diverse food beyond pub food here *sigh
I grew up in Oregon near Portland and I'd never encountered it. It very well could be the Chinese restaurants I visited didn't serve it, or I just never noticed it as an option and my ethnically Chinese friends weren't fans of it.
I may have painted with too broad a brush from my limited experience
I didn't realize until I moved away that the Midwest has a reputation for not liking spicy food. I must have been in a little hotspot of spiciness, even the family sausage recipe was too spicy for my Seattle-raised friends to like at all.
I find that Sichuan pepper has flavor as well as mala, and I love that flavor. I wind up dusting many of the dishes I make (especially fried rice) with ground Sichuan pepper just to give the taste a little extra something.
There is definitely a flavor that goes beyond the mala feeling that I very much enjoy. I wrote this comment soon after waking up before I had my morning coffee, so I think I went a little light on a few points I would have added.
I've not tried adding it to other dishes like that, and will have to pick up some to give that a try!
they definitely do have their own flavor as well, it's kinda citrus-y almost imo
I sometimes forget that I enjoy spicy food, because most people around me equate spicy with chili. And I don't like where the heat from chili lands: in the throat.
But I do enjoy lots of spicy things that feel hot/tingly in different parts of the mouth, tongue and nose, like: yellow mustard (nose), ginger (roof of mouth), fake wasabi aka horseradish (half nose + sides of tongue), raw garlic (whole mouth besides roof), raw onions (mostly tongue), white pepper (front of tongue + front teeth) (black pepper is for taste because if used for heat it travels a bit to close to the throat).
I recently got to experiment a little with Sichuan pepper and as many have mentioned it feels hot/numbing in the front of mouth which is nice.
Admittedly it requires a bit of effort to reach the levels of chili-hotness with my preferred ingredients and compared to "all the cool kids" my food is normally very mild, I just wanted to add that it matters where it's hot not only that it's hot.
You might be interested in the "kitchen salt" seasoning mix I encountered in culinary school - kosher salt pre-seasoned with black pepper, white pepper, and cayenne. There aren't any specific proportions, it's something we learned to do by eye. If I had to guess, it's about 1 cup salt, 1T black pepper, 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp cayenne.
The theory is that the three peppers stimulate taste receptors throughout the month, which intensifies sensitivity to flavors other than pepper.
It's so interesting how fast you can build tolerance to spicy food and start craving it if you insist a bit. I used to not be able to tolerate even Tabasco and the first time I tried Buldak, the much less spicy cheese flavored version, I thought it was insane someone could enjoy that. Now I'm watching the TikTok video on the article and thinking I should probably have that for lunch today.