I like Sichuan cooking, that wonderful combination of chili hot and unique taste of Sichuan pepper (called Ma in local language).  I regularly go to Sichuan restaurants in Hong Kong to have a big meal, but the dishes are often very chili hot so that by the end of the meal, the taste buds are 'burnt' and cannot taste anything else, that is a shame.

After reading Dr. Gu Xiaopei's article that explains Sichuan pepper have an ingredient that may prevent degradation of memory, I immediately bought a big bag of Sichuan pepper, thinking that just adding a few in cooking every now and then could be a brilliant idea. Probably I do not know at what stage I should add the pepper and what other seasonings that goes well with it, I found it difficult to bring out the Ma flavor.

In 2011 I and 12 others from Britain, the United States, Australia and Switzerland, partook in a two week culinary journey by studying at the SICHUAN HIGHER INSTITUTE OF CUISINE. Each morning I went to school to see three classic dishes being demonstrated by the chefs. In the afternoon, our group learned how to use the traditional Chinese super hot stoves to practice and I finally gained a better understanding of Sichuan cuisine.

The interesting part is that during the first two day's demonstrations, the Chefs let us taste the finished dishes. Although the dishes all have reddish chili colour, lovely fragrance and complex flavor, they are just mildly chili hot and Ma, far less chili hot than what I used to have in Hong Kong. I quietly begged the teachers to show us authentic Sichuan cooking, not tone down versions because of the presence of Westerners.

The teachers all said that this is authentic taste, they always do them like this, there is no modification. In fact, traditional Sichuan cuisine has equal number of hot chili and non chili dishes, but since the chili hot and Ma ones are more famous, some restaurants purposely increase the spiciness, just to impress and surprise outsiders. Seeing that I am still skeptical, the teachers continued to explain that the dishes being taught are standard Sichuan home dishes, families have children, if the dishes are very chili hot and Ma, how can kids eat them? 

In the subsequent two weeks eating out in a large number of restaurants, it is indeed true that many dishes are only mildly chili and Ma. This actually makes it easier to enjoy the natural taste of the ingredients, well blended with the complex flavor of various seasonings used. After the course, I noticed that Sichuan pepper cannot survive at high temperature, the teachers never add Sichuan pepper when the wok is very hot. No wonder when I used Sichuan pepper before, I could hardly get the Ma flavor!