Sichuan Pepper, Chinese Prickly Ash, Zanthoxylum Piperitum and Hua Jiao (花椒)

Sichuan pepper, Chinese prickly ash, and Zanthoxylum Piperitum - they sound very different to my ears, but they are just different variant names for hua1 jiao1 (花椒), a key ingredient in Sichuan cuisine. I didn't know its English names until just a few weeks ago when we had some friends over for dinner.


For that Xinjiang-themed dinner (one of the guests recently returned from a trip to Xinjiang), I made a Big Plate Chicken dish (大盘鸡), a popular Xinjiang dish, in China. One of the required ingredients according to a recipe that I had was hua jiao (花椒). One of the guests asked me where I bought the Sichuan pepper, for as far as they know, Sichuan Pepper has been banned for importing from China by USDA since 2000 due to some serious disease that it could cause for certain plants. (It turns out that recently the US has started allowing imports of Sichuan Pepper again on condition that it's heated up to a certain degree. Don't ask me why - I don't know the science behind it.) I actually didn't use Sichuan pepper, I used black peppercorns instead. No wonder when I threw them into hot oil, they were exploding and splashing oil and bits of peppercorns all over the place! If I had used real Sichuan pepper, that wouldn't have happened. Why? Because instead of crackling up in hot oil, Sichuan pepper would quiet the sizzle and disperses its flavor through oil.

Although it is called "hua jiao" (flower pepper) in Chinese and has a peppery taste to it, it really has nothing to do with chili pepper or black pepper. Sichuan pepper is from a completely different plant and is famous for its unique flavor that it adds to dishes. In Chinese, it is usually described as "numbingly spicy." However one wants to describe its tastes, a lot of us crave for that special kick and will gladly welcome that numbing sensation. Agaisnt common intuition, the strong flavor actually resides mostly in the shells of the dried fruits of the Sichuan pepper tree.

The Chinese not only use it widely in cooking, but also in medicine and daily housekeeping chores. According to the Chinese medicine, hua jiao is good for your lungs, spleen and kidneys. To ease the soreness of your feet, you could soak your feet in hot water infused with Sichuan pepper oil. To keep your closet free of clothes-eating bugs, hang a mesh bag of Sichuan pepper. Got a bug in your ears, a few drops of Sichuan pepper oil would force it out.

Apparently, its uses have been recognized and appreciated by the Chinese long time ago. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220), it is said that the concubines and princesses in royal court would paint the walls of their palace with a special mix of paint, in which the main ingredient was Sichuan pepper. Supposedly, that helps keep the palace warm and give it a fragrant aura. The seeds of Sichuan pepper also symbolically create an auspicious ambiance and bring good luck for producing offspring. With its wide use in the royal concubines' quarters, came about another variant name, 椒 房 (jiao1 fang2), for 后宫(hou3 gong1), the Chinese version of harem in the royal palace.

Next time when I use Sichuan pepper, I will use it admirably!

The Origins of Hot Pot 火锅

Ever wonder about the stories behind Hot Pot 火锅? The other night we had Hot Pot at a friend's house. I'm from Mainland China; and the hostess is from Taiwan. We talked about how popular Hot Pot is in both China and Taiwan. Politics may divide us; but Hot Pot brings us together. That got me thinking about the origins of Hot Pot.

There are many theories and stories out there. Of course, the 5000 years of Chinese history could take us as far back as the Shang and Zhou Period. 火锅 (Huo3 Guo1) literally means "Fire Pot." As long as it is food cooked in a pot over a fire (or a hot surface) and directly eaten out of it, I guess that qualifies as Hot Pot.

Back in the Shang/Zhou period (about 4000 years ago), the ancient Chinese like people elsewhere spent a lot of time performing all kinds of rituals such as praying for rain or longer life. Rituals often involve eating and drinking. It is said that that's the beginning of Hot Pot - meats (of course, without modern day's vast choice of spices and flavors) cooked in a big vassal with 3 or 4 legs over an open fire.

The rest of Hot Pot's history seems to evolve along with the discovery and development of materials used in making the pot. For example, copper and iron later were used in making cooking utensils. That seems to be a big step forward over earthenware in terms of heat conductivity. During the Three Kingdom Period, a dish called Wu Shu Fu (五熟釜) added some sophistication to Hot Pot. It had 5 sections in a pot so that one can taste multiple flavors. What a smart idea! But imagine having a chopstick fight over which section one should dip into!

The Song Dynasty saw a big boost in the fame of Hot Pot after Lin Hong (林洪), an intellectual, bragged about an amazing meal that he had when visiting a hermit friend in the mountains. The story goes like this: one day on his way into the mountains to visit his hermit friend, it was snowing; he saw a rabbit limping along, so he caught that rabbit and brought it to his friend's house. He didn't know how to cook it, so the hermit friend showed him how - slice the rabbit up and throw them in a boiling pot and pour in some soy sauce, wine and other ingredients. It turned out to be a delicious meal. Lin Hong raved about it and even gave it a poetic name, "Bo Xia Gong" (拨霞供). That's already very close to modern day version of Hot Pot.

Another theory goes that Genghis Khan came up with the idea of Hot Pot which is easy to cook and serve so that he can feed his hordes of troops. Supposedly, they dipped slices of lamb into flavored soup. But I always thought that the Mongolians preferred roasted meats.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Hot Pot started showing up on menus of restaurants. The well-known essayist, Yuan Mei, in his writings also mentioned Hot Pot. The Sichuan numbingly hot Hot Pot was said to have started on street vendors' small mobile food stalls. Later on, it got so popular restaurants started making their own Sichuan-styled Hot Pot.

What a simple idea! Yet, the western cuisine doesn't really have anything quite like that. When the humans were all sitting around a fire thousands of years ago, didn't they come up with similar ideas like a Hot Pot dish? Maybe that's where civilization had its earliest diversion - one leaning toward collectivism and the other individualism. Modern day Hot Pot can even fabulously combine these two distinctive styles without sacrificing the great eating atmosphere a Hot Pot can bring about.

If you have a great story about Hot Pot, you are welcome to share it with me!