one day we were strolling around the crowded carrefour and couldn’t help to notice the huge pile of these little dried berries… they spread a strong scent across the corridor, quite irresistible… so I packed a handful and brought them home, willing to experiment with them. “hua jiao” they are called, literally “flower pepper” – promising.

on the first occasion, i poured quite a few on our steaks. the result was… hum… interesting. despite the name, they’re not spicy at all. the steaks were ok, but, as we discovered (amidst a laugh attack) the berries are actually very, very tongue numbing! that was totally unexpected! we spent the rest of the meal dodging them on our plates… they looked so innocent!

as i’ve later discovered, they’re used in sichuan hotpot to improve the other tastes and the spiciness of the meal itself.
more on gastronomic discoveries to come.