Szechuan House

CHILIS ALL DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY

Sichuanese cuisine (often anglicized as Szechuanese) is world-renowned for being hot and spicy. The fiery diet can be attributed to Sichuan’s wet, misty climate. The landlocked province is surrounded by mountain ranges and gets a lot of rain. In traditional Chinese medicine, pungent spices like chili and cayenne are warming foods that stimulate blood circulation, drive dampness from the body and help prevent colds. Maybe this explains why spicy food is so popular in Richmond!

SICHUAN PEPPERCORNS: A GIFT FOR GLUTTONS

In Sichuan cuisine, the heat of red chilies is balanced by Sichuan peppercorns, which have a tingly, numbing quality on the lips and tongue. According to legend, Sichuan peppercorn is used liberally in Sichuan cooking because the numbing effects allow you to eat more chilies than would otherwise be humanly possible.

MALA: HOT AND NUMBING      

The Chinese word for numbing is MA (麻) and the word for hot is LA (辣). The unique hot-numbing characteristic of Sichuan cooking is called MALA (麻辣).