I recently went to Shenzhen and had a “Chilli Chicken” at an umarket restaurant which came as chicken stew intensly colored red. Normally I love chilli hot food, but this had an intense metallic perhaps soapy taste that left me almost shaking afterwards - felt quite sick for a while. Put it down to a bad meal. But bought a packet of “Chongqing hot pot seasoning” back home with me and it had the same overwhelming taste. So I guess it is a style of chinese cooking. I would have perhaps put it down to large amounts of MSG, but the packets ingredients only included bean paste and fermented soya out of the ordinary.
So what in in the hot pot to give it such a taste and second - do chinese people really like it? Oh and how can I avoid it if I go back to china?
The hot pot definitely has Sichuan peppercorns, which make your mouth tingly and numb. It is widely used in Sichuan cuisine. Yes, this is considered pleasant.
Sichuan peppercorns look just like the normal kind. I don’t think those dishes contain normal pepper, so the next time you see a pepper you can try it and see if that’s what you’re tasting. I find them a bit sweet and numbing. They’re harmless. Some people eat them, you can pick them out if you don’t like the taste.
Another vote for Sichuan peppercorns. I don’t know if I’d describe them as “soapy”, but “metallic” doesn’t seem that far off. I spit them out rather than crunching on them.
I wouldn’t quite say that. But here’s a visual, depending on what your yardstick for similarity is. They more resemble pinkish coriander seeds than peppercorns, in my opinion. At any rate, they’re hollow, often split, and have a numbing-citrussy-herby flavor to them. I love those things.
However, “soapy” and “metallic” descriptions usually mean cilantro.
I dont think it was cilantro (which I love). However it was probably sichuan peppercorn as my mouth was very numb too. I suspect that my aversion was because of the unexpected foriegn taste together with the numbing sensation, which the mind constructed as being poisoned. At least I can ask if the dish has sichuan peppercorns in future which will be a great help.
I never ceased to be amazed what people can get used to and actually like - fermented shark, kimchi, offal etc etc. I now can put sichuan peppers on that list too.
You aren’t the first. When Peace Corps first began sending volunteers to Southwest China in the 1990s, the Chinese medical officers were perplexed by how many trainees were making medical appointments for facial paralysis, potential nerve damage, uncontrolled slobbering and suspected poisoning. It turned out, of course, that these volunteers were just encountering Sichuan’s famous hua jiao, or Sichuan peppercorn. It’s a ubiquitous spice in Sichuan cuisine, and most meals and snacks are pretty heavily laced with it. It’s considered a fundamental taste along with sweet, spicy, bitter and sour.
Having grown up with it at every meal, the local doctors hadn’t considered that the sensation might strange and off putting to newcomers. It took a bit of detective work to put two and two together. Accordingly, the moment my training group arrived in Chengdu, before we got dinner we were given a little lesson on how to manage the Sichuan peppercorn.
Some people grow to like it a lot, but even the biggest doubter eventually starts to enjoy the addictive combination of fiery chilis and numbing hua jiao. A good Sichuan meal should be a full body experience, with your eyes tearing up, snot running out your nose, your lips numb and buzzing, and a good buzz from the cheap beer and strong liquor.
^ Yeah, first time I (knowingly) had Sichuan peppercorns was around 2005, when I saw them at the local Asian market sold simply as peppercorns, although I recognized them for what they were (they had been banned from the US for awhile because of some agricultural disease they could carry. Actually, checking Wikipedia, apparently they were banned from the US from 1968-2005 because of the ability to carry citrus canker.) Anyhow, I was so excited to find them, but had no idea what they were supposed to taste like. I bought them, brought them home, and then chowed down on about five or six peppercorns. Then, that numb flavor hit, and I seriously thought I was having some sort of allergic reaction to them. I tried to wash my mouth out with whiskey, and then took a couple shots myself to calm myself down. I frantically searched the internet, only to find out this was normal, and how they were supposed to taste. Anyhow, I got used to it pretty quick, and now I love 'em.
Agreed. You want to kind of eat around them. If you get oneor two it’s no big deal but you should be avoiding them when possible. Think of them as the stems from fresh herbs, they’re a necessary component to the dosh but aren’t really ment to be consumed.
It is definitely the sichuan peppers. Nearly the same exact thing happened to me, except, after eating the dish, it just made the water taste metalic and soapy. I had to keep convincing myself that it was fine but it tasted SO bad and the flavor just wouldn’t go away.
The meal itself was great but yeah, it really fucked my taste buds up for everything else. And I know the exact flavor you are talking about.
Agreed that you want to do as the Chinese do and eat around the peppercorns, the same way you might eat around a spring of rosemary or a chunk of ginger. They aren’t dangerous, but they do irritate the stomach, and if you make a habit of it, it could lead to trouble down the road. It’s not unheard of for unwitting foreigners in Sichuan to end up with stomach complications from prolonged irritation due to eating the peppercorns whole.
Cilantro is not soapy and I’m pretty sure “cilantro” is just Spanish for coriander. You won’t hear Brits saying cilantro, it’s more an American thing.
But in response to OP, yeah that’s Sichuan peppers, hate that stuff! There was this aubergine dish that I loved but for some reason they threw that stuff in and I always asked for it without them. If you want to avoid them in Mandarin speaking places just say “Wo bu yao huajiao” (“I don’t want huajiao”).
