FYI, Mapo Restaurant in Naperville has some great dishes with Szechuan peppercorns in them. Their Ma La Beef Tendon is great, as is their Dan Dan noodles, both spiked with the good stuff. If you’re ever out in the west suburbs, check it out.
Which restaurant did you go to? Was it in Chicago?
It was in Beijing. I’ll have to try Mapo or one of the restaurants in Chinatown.
Lao Sze Chuan or Double Li in Chinatown are your best bets. Both are orgasmic.
Maybe it has something to do with Chinese traders coming to Goa back when it was a Portuguese trading post (or the Portuguese bringing the peppercorns back from their travels)? I’m learning about this type of thing now and it’s pretty fascinating…everyone swapping stuff around (that’s probably how chili peppers got from the New World to China and Southeast Asia so amazingly fast).
Except Sichuan ppercorns historically are eaten only in Sichuan provice - landlocked in the middle of China. just doesn’t seem to be a natural food or tradegood for the seafaring coastal Chinese. bur coulda happened.
You can buy nice quality ones at Penzeys.
Ah, that’s true! I get confused, because a very closely related species, sansho (another prickly ash) is a commonly used spice in Japan and has been for some time.
Okay, here we go-- the great book The Golden Peaches of Samarkand by Edward H. Schafer, which is about “exotic” items during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, talks extensively about fagara, which is one term for plants of the genus Zanthoxylum. He says that the variety used in Chinese cooking and medicine in antiquity was “fagara of Ch’in”, Zanthoxylum piperatum, which is the same thing as Japanese sansho pepper. It’s also mentioned that “fagara of Ch’in” was a well-known seasoning in southern Chinese cuisine, and there are numerous references to it in Chinese sources from all over the place (and multiple time periods).
However, this was distinct from a second type, “fagara of Shu”, the kind that was known in Sichuan and was imported from the western regions; it was considered to be of better quality. (Interestingly enough, black pepper was originally classified as “fagara of the Westerners” rather than a separate spice in its own right.)
So, spices in the same general category as Sichuan pepper were in use throughout China in antiquity, particularly southern China, and were present in Japan as well.
The Wikipedia article on Sichuan pepper mentions several related species, and states that the teppal of India is a distinct Zanthoxylum species of its own. It sounds like the genus is widespread enough that it was used all over, including Central and South America.
(One more post, then I’ll quit.)
According to the Tang-dynasty sources quoted in my book, you’re in very ancient company by doing this (mixing Sichuan pepper with salt and dipping your chicken and duck into it). 