Get to Know Málà, Sichuan Food's Most Famous Flavor

Mention Sichuan cooking and the response is often, "Ooh, spicy!" According to Chinese cooking expert and cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop, that stereotype persists even in much of China itself. We were lucky to have her visit the Serious Eats test kitchen to introduce her updated masterwork on Sichuan cooking, originally titled Land of Plenty and now sporting the new name, The Food of Sichuan.

Sichuan cooking is indeed often spicy, but as Fuchsia explains, that's just one aspect of a far more complex and varied cuisine shaded with a wide range of flavor profiles—and a thoughtful meal should reflect that. As an example, she cooked a well-balanced Sichuan meal featuring dishes that are in turns hot and spicy, tingly and numbing, mild and refreshing, deeply fragrant, and gently sweet and sour.

In the video above, Fuchsia introduces what is arguably Sichuan's most famous flavor, known as málà, or "numbing and spicy," thanks to the enlivening combination of Sichuan peppercorns and dried red chile peppers.