A Vegan Called Bacon

Sichuan people are very proud. They speak a crazy dialect and insist it’s the right way of speaking Chinese. And they do the best line in spicy food I think I’ve ever found. Super hot, but also with a crazy numb sensation. It makes your mouth feel like a big fleshy balloon has just landed in it. I was convinced it was some kind of terrible artificial chemical and was horrified when I first tasted it.

It turns out to be a flavour called “ma” which means “numb”. Most spicy things in Sichuan are actually “mala”, numb-spicy. The source of this flavour is a spice that looks like a red peppercorn. In English, it is called Sichuan Pepper but you often see it labeled Chinese Prickly Ash. In Chinese it’s called hua jiao and it’s something of a food craze here. You get it in instant noodles and all sorts.

Wierdly, once I knew it was natural and traditional, I suddenly developed a craving for it. And now I’m kind of addicted. Something which is both ma and la has something special about it. Chilli makes me feel high. Mala makes me feel delirious.

You can buy it as whole peppercorns, or ready-ground. I’ve found the ground ones are a bit shit and tasteless. The best result I’ve had so far is hot-frying a teaspoon or three in a generous bit of peanut oil in the bottom of a wok (along with a huge amount of dried chillis) before continuing with the meal. In soupy dishes, you can pour on extra mala oil in at the end for that extra kick, and oily sheen.

The other secret is that Sichuan recipes often call for a small amount of sugar. I’ve found the more firey-hot-numb a dish, the more the sugar balances the flavours.

Here in China it’s the last day of a 3 days mourning period for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.

I’ve found it hard to know exactly what’s an appropriate response. It all seems very distant, something you watch on TV. I do know I find reports combining news of pandas with news of tens of thousands dead a bit inappropriate. Most people have given money, because it’s the only thing any of us can really do to help. Around Beijing, we’ve seen individuals lighting candles and sending them off in paper boats across city lakes. And in what seems to me to be a strange move, the government has decided to shut down all TV entertainment and websites. While, in fairness, their response does seem to have been overall excellent (compared to other governments in other disasters), they can’t resist their instinct to make political capital out of it.

So in the spirit of not knowing what’s appropriate, I thought I’d plough ahead and talk about a new favourite ingredient and act like that’s completely appropriate. If you’d like do donate something, I went for this children’s appeal by Half the Sky, or there’s always the Red Cross of Society China.