Responding to Hyerbowler’s questions about Szechuan cooking in NYC in the 1970’s.
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a number of mom and pop Szechuan restaurants opened in the early 1970s on upper Broadway (95th Street, 97th Street, 105th Street, 110th Street and there were others) all of which featured non-Cantonese food (and what we’d call Szechuan today.) The food was very different from old reliables in that area, and people knew there was something new going on.
At the same time (and maybe a bit earlier), a very sharp fella named Ed Schoenfield recruited a number of chefs from Taiwan and China, opening several “more fancy” kinds of places in midtown which also featured non-Cantonese food. (I believe he also had a role in operating “Szechuan” on 95th and Broadway.
Here is a link from Eater where he reminiscences about that era. (I should add that in Chinatown, there were also Szechuan restaurants at that time, including Hwa Yaun (back in operation again now), Say Eng Look 456, and others but it was the Upper West Side, IMO, that led the way.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shark’s fin, birds nest, abalone. Walked a single street block in Taipei that had at least 20 shops with floor to ceiling inventory of above. Pretty awesome!!
Reorienting this thread back to Sichuan/Szechuan Pepper: If you want to experience some of, if not the best Sichuan pepper, check out the offerings at Mala Market. I got in some of this one and it’s fantastic! They also have “flower” grade, less broken, attractive husks where looks and whole spice is used. Not cheap, but you’ll need less to flavor dishes.
These I am pan toasting a little, as they’re fresher, more pliable and harder to grind otherwise.
Around Lake Toba, Sumatra, where indigenous Batak cultures dominate, Indonesia’s analog to Sichuan peppercorns makes for a fantastic base to condiments.
Called andaliman, it’s lemony, tingly, and ultimately has my number.
Haven’t tried searching for andaliman outside of Indonesia, but this thread made me curious about its availability.
The genus, Xanthoxylum, has hundreds of species scattered all over the globe. There are at least a couple native species in the eastern USA. Aside for “toothache”, due to the numbing effect of the twigs if chewed, they’re not popular as a spice.
Though it’s not obvious, these plants are distantly related to citrus.
