Brazil's answer to the Sichuan pepper
bbc.com
bbc.com
As you said, you will only find jambu on the North. I have no idea why people don't ship it around.
My mother is from Santa Catarina, but I grew up in south west Germany.
https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:9...
Also known as: Electric Daisy, Paracress, Eyeball Plant, Toothache Plant, Jambu, Brazilian Cress, Sichuan Buttons, Buzz Buttons, Tingflowers, Novacaine Plant, Phak Khraat Hua Van, Brede Mafane, Agrião Do Para, Peek-a-boo, Spilanthes acmella
The plant that’s the topic of the story is a flowering herb. The plant you are asking about is called Syzygium samarangense and what you’re describing are the fruits of trees.
The Brazilian "Jambu" that the article describes is not the same thing - it's an astringent herb from the Amazon.
Everything you said about Brazil seems true to me. And for anyone thinking about visiting us: people from here a very receptive, especially with curious and respectful tourists.
Amazing cuisine in that country and the people are incredibly nice and friendly. Would love to return some day again.
In my experience it runs from ~80 to <120 proof (and most commonly ~80), which is in the same range as rum and bourbon, unless you're in a state/country with some crazy restrictions I guess?
Everclear and Bacardi 151 are waaaay stronger than any cachaca I've ever seen.
It's the same thing in French, we say "J'ai des fourmis dans les jambes" ("I have ants in my legs").
Off topic, but the "ma" in mapo tofu also uses same character from ma2la4, but also serves to give a visual description of the dish. That character is also used to refer to a pockmarked person, and the po2 is from one of the various ways to refer to grandmother. You could probably go as far to say it's something of a pun.
True, but it isn't restricted to that; it also describes the taste of garlic.
(Whereas in English, I would never describe garlic or onions as "hot". If I needed a descriptor, I'd call them "sharp".)
Come on. You could at least read my comments before responding to them.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32111461
You really think "sharp" is a bad descriptor for raw garlic?
Fresh raw garlic really burns, and I think it's quite normal to describe it as hot or spicy in American English.
Eat a raw garlic clove and then get back to me on that!
Here are the main chemicals that are usually described as spicy - they all use the same mechanism to create a "heat" sensation, with the exception of the Sichuan peppercorns:
- Chile Peppers: Capsaicin
- Onions/Garlic: Allicin and Pyruvic Acid
- Ginger: Gingerol
- Black Pepper: Piperine
- Mustard/Horseradish/Wasabi: Allyl Isothiocyanate
- Sichuan Peppercorn: Hydroxy-Alpha-Sanshool
In the UK here. I've found that any old bag of dried, ground, Sichuan pepper, or dried Sichuan pepper corns that you grind yourself, will cause the effect. No need for 'proper preparation' or freshness, just sprinkle Sichuan pepper on the food.
The pepper is greenish in colour. Just add liberally and you'll get the numbness.
The red ones are the ones that are normally used in Sichuan cooking and they are plenty numbing.
The green ones (from a slightly different species) are more common in Japanese cooking
You don't really want to substitute them for each other.
From my observations living in China, shopping at wet markets and eating in restaurants, green Sichuan pepper is quite commonly used. Both red and green variants are sold in dry format, but the red ones are the ones you will find more often pre-packaged in supermarkets. They do both work to create a numbing sensation, but in my opinion, the green ones get you more bang for your buck.
Sansho is Zanthoxylum piperitum and green sichuan pepper apparently may be Zanthoxylum armatum, so red sichuan pepper, green sichuan pepper, and sansho may all be different species.
There is also Zanthoxylum schinifolium which is apparently used in Korean "Sancho".
Incredible how good just rice, a dash of light soy sauce, an egg, and a good helping of chili oil can taste.
You can probably just add a little sesame oil to it instead. Corn oil and grape seed are also fine carriers.
As for recipes, Kenji Alt-Lopez has a wok cookbook with some for chili oils, but Fuchsia Dunlop is really the definitive author on Sichuan cooking.
In Sichuan they put this stuff in everything. Start off with a breakfast of Numbing & Spicy beef noodle soup. Mid morning a snack of cold rice noodles with lajao & haujao paste on it. ChuanChuan for lunch, Hot Pot for dinner and finish it off with a spicy BBQ in the evening.
It was a pretty fun experience! The flower itself does not taste good—very grassy with an unpleasant texture—but the numbing effect was really fun, especially experienced as group.
1. Buy a cocktail book. I got one ages ago, so I'm not sure what I'd recommend today.
2. Pick one cocktail that you like and get the ingredients for it. Master it.
3. Slowly branch out to nearby cocktails that only vary by an ingredient or two.
4. Keep exploring that way.
Like other culinary stuff, cocktails tend to be organized into a large web of related drinks. So once you pick a starting point, you can just incrementally explore the graph without having to buy a pile of ingredients.
Eventually you will amass a pile of ingredients. But, fortunately, most last a very long time.
As far as a party goes, it depends a lot on your guests. In particular, their age. Cocktails go through fashion cycles like everything else and younger guests are more dialed in to those so will probably prefer whatever cocktails are big right now. I'm too old to know what that is but I know mules got super popular for a while.
Older guests will generally have a standby or two that they know they like.
If you just want to ensure everyone has a good time, I'd get sufficient beer and wine and then pick a popular cocktail or two. Anyone who doesn't like those particular cocktails can simply default to beer or wine.
If you want to have a "cocktail party" where everyone is encouraged to focus on those, then good coverage would be:
1. Something sweet and fruity for those who don't like a strong liquor taste. Cosmopolitans are good for this. Tropical drinks like mai tais can be good too, though rum might be too strong for some.
2. Something long for people who want a lighter, larger drink. "Long" means mixed with a carbonated beverage. This could be as simple as a Jack and coke or fancier like a Tom Collins. Gin and tonics are great.
3. Something whiskey-based. People who like whiskey really like whiskey. Old fashioneds work well or manhattans if you're a little more adventurous.
Talking to bartenders when you're at a bar is always great way to learn more. Just try not to bug them if they're clearly busy attending to patrons.
> once you pick a starting point, you can just incrementally explore the graph without having to buy a pile of ingredients.
That's exactly what I was picturing so thanks for the tips. Especially your intro steps and the coverage points. I specifically want to be able to make cocktails for friends at regular hangouts or as a fun activity at get-togethers/parties, so having good coverage is an especially important goal for me. I feel motivated to give it a shot now; I think I'll try Death & Co since a past coworker got into that, or just look around and see what's popular these days.
One more follow-up question, after getting some experience with cocktails, have you been able to replicate cocktails you try at bars? That's another skill I'd enjoy having because I really enjoy most craft cocktails at bars, but I draw complete blanks when I try making my own recipes at home (unsurprising since I haven't really gotten into the craft), so I'd love to be able to replicate ones I try
I don't know if I ever tried to directly replicate cocktails that I've had in bars. I mostly just focused on picking recipes and then iterating on them until I got them dialed in. It's a fun place to just explore.
What I did learn, though, is that almost all of the craft cocktails I see on menus are really just variations on a few basic classic cocktails. They'll give it a fancy name and tweak a few secondary ingredients, but in general, if it's got whiskey, it's often a variation on an old fashioned or Manhattan. (City names are a clue for the latter.) If it has simple syrup and citrus, it's in the ballpark of a sour.
I used to forage it back when we could only get the really shitty stuff in the states, though I haven't gone looking for it for years now since we can get the high quality easily these days.
I normally do intermittent fasting and stay away from carbs during the work week. I don't do buffet and usually don't have 2 daily meals, let alone 3.
So, after 2-3 days of repeating the feast -3 times a day-, my stomach and intestines finally went on strike. I ended up with a strong reaction with a loose stool. 2 days later, it would still not go away. It was constant. I was chained to the bathroom. The rest of the family didn't overeat + mix everything, so naturally they were totally fine.
Finally on the 3rd day, I gave up on waiting it out and asked for help from our jungle guide.
He told me to have oregano tea, so had 2 cups. The change was instantaneous. Just like the article, all the locals from the amazon knew this was the standard remedy for diarrhea.
I googled this afterwards. None of the top hits for home remedy for diarrhea even mentioned oregano tea once in their articles. A medical dietitian had a 1 word link back to diarrhea in a "oregano health benefits" article [1].
Its crazy how ignorant we are of natural methods, and makes me wonder what other wonderful natural medicines are waiting to be re-discovered in the amazon.
Brazil has too many nice vacation places and the Amazon isn't it
Mostly this. If you want to see exotic animals, you'll be probably more comfortable on a Zoo. Favorite touristic points of Brazil seems to be northeast beach or coldest parts of the south. I was in vacation in Florianopolis, a capital city in the south, in 2019 and every time I said I was from the northeast they asked me: "and why are you wasting your vacation here?"
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rainforest#/media/File:...
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/ibwul3/the_norther...
That's not really correct in my experience. You can find "deep wilderness" in about 30-40 minutes from the city of Manaus (by boat), as in places with no human activity at all. And Manaus is very reachable (actually what people consider "the Amazon").
The city doesn't sprawl too far, and you have deforestation along the roads, but it's quite impressive how the "deep" jungle starts just after the last man-made structure. There are more areas of uninterrupted forest than in any other region probably in the world. And I visited in 2020, not really long ago.
I'm Brazilian and I didn't really expect that, knowing our bad track record of deforestation. I thought the "real" jungle would be much further away. Coming from the Southeast of Brazil I can see the difference, and I'd call forests in this region definitely degraded. But up there it's as close to pristine as it gets with human involvement. The tragedy is that it's not for long.
You can get to the Amazon from Quito with a 5 hour drive that is very pleasant. Then the road ends and you take a boat that can be anything from 30mins to several hours, depending how deep into the jungle you are going.
Once there, there's tons to do. Floating in an amazon tributary river -with no sound other than the occasional bird- and closing my eyes was one of the most incredible zen moments in my life. Could have stayed hours. That week went by too fast.
Regarding your brazil experience - doesn't seem uncommon. I've asked Peruvians, Ecuadoreans, Brazilians etc if they have gone to the Amazon. The answer is no.
Its not dissimilar to the experience you would get in the US if you asked someone if they have been to Mt Rushmore, Florida Keys, Grand Canyon, or even Yellowstone. Its far, and mostly out of reach for most americans (and we are far wealthier than our southern neighbors).
Also, I get a sense that touristic developments deep in South America wilderness tend to cater to foreign tourists. Such prices may be out of reach for most upper class locals. This is different from most US landmarks, which seem to cater primarily to middle class Americans (anecdata).
Fill a 1/3 cup with oregano leaves. Dump hot water. That's all it takes.
I had 2 cups! (i was desperate lol)
Now, don't put so much trust on the "knowledge of the natives". That knowledge is not maintained by centuries because native indians didn't develop writing, so recipes vary a lot even from one city to another; there are different fruits or plants which have the same name in different regions and the same fruit or plant may have different names in different regions. It is also not tested with a large genetic pool since these groups are very small, familiar with little genetic diversity.
They're much stronger than any sane amount of Sichuan pepper -- but shorter lasting, and they change food's flavor in a slightly different way. I can't quite describe how, as I've only had them with a specific cocktail at Mcclellans Retreat in DC.
I'd recommend it if you're ever nearby, cool drink and it's also a great neighborhood cocktail bar.
Most Sichuan peppers sold in the West have been sitting around for years and have barely any numbing effect. There are also two different common varieties: the one almost always seen in the West is Zanthoxylum bungeanum, the red Sichuan pepper (红花椒), but in China they also use a lot of Zanthoxylum armatum aka green Sichuan peppers (麻椒 or 青花椒). The green ones are much more strongly numbing and can even be eaten fresh (藤椒), with an effect not unlike putting Pop Rocks into your food!
I've also always felt that "numbing" is a wholly inadequate translation for 麻, which in Chinese is also used for anesthesia, the hemp plant, etc. It doesn't just numb your taste buds, but alters them: for me even plain water tastes thick and salty afterwards.
Great in small sips as a palate cleanser when having bbq.
If one wants to have a good introduction to them, Huang Fei Hong Spicy Peanuts are on Amazon and many asian grocers.. they consistently have fresh and numbing pods mixed in.
I've never got good numbing Sichuan peppercorns retail in the US, but have gotten some really strong ones off of Amazon.
By far though, one of the best Sichaunese dishes which is unfortunately (and surprisingly) overlooked is their whitefish. If you know you know.
Bread is a staple of French (and European) cuisine, cayenne pepper is found is found in most kitchens but isn't.
- star anise - fennel - cinnamon - clove - sichuan peppercorns
This "five spices" powder is used very often in Northern Chinese cooking as a meat or tofu rub.
In addition, sichuan peppercorns are often used in lushui in the south:
https://soupeduprecipes.com/chinese-master-brine-recipe/
and also it can be found in a lot of braising recipes.
Reminded me of tucupi, which has been popular for longer, and also causes a numbing sensation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucupi
If anybody has a source I’d be curious.