Growing up, I was not familiar with Sichuan food.
I did not know about Sichuan peppercorns until I tried mala (hot and numbing) hotpot about 20 years ago. Now we love Sichuan food, which was a good reason to visit Chengdu for a holiday.
We were in Chengdu for 5 days. Giant pandas, misty mountains of Qing Chen, stylistic Daoist temple architecture and bian-lian performance, these were just the highlights. Our hotel, The Temple House was pretty special too. (This is not a sponsored post). Pretty awesome vacation.
As for the food, well, 5 days is barely enough to scratch the surface of what the local cuisine was all about, in fact, we were easily overwhelmed by the abundance of good eats just within walking distance of our hotel in a busy commercial district.
The Chengdu Spice Market is not on most people's itinerary, in fact on a late morning visit there were hardly any locals or tourist, anyway, it's a magical place, very Ali Baba. It's a treasure trove of abundant chillis, herbs and spices. A bewildering range and varieties of spices and peppers that contribute to the many tastes of Sichuan. Rich earth colours of spices, firecracker burst of chillies and peppers, glistening tubs of bean pastes, it was just an endless feast for the senses. At first impression, the market smelled of hotpot, but gradually we were able to study and distinguish the different ingredients. The shopkeepers were very friendly too, dishing out advice and information generously. That deep red paste is to add colour, green peppercorns go well with fish, this mix is good for home use, that is usually preferred by hotpot restaurants, on and on we listen to their replies to our clueless questions.
