Numbing Goodness (Dan Dan Mian)

A couple weeks back I saw a recipe (keep in mind, this happens almost daily when you scroll through the RSS feed of Foodgawker (user-submitted photos of dishes - very visual...until you click further to find out the details) for a Szechuan Chinese noodle dish. I kept the recipe on my desktop for a couple weeks because I had wanted to make it sooner rather than later...but then it got buried under other documents and finally filed away a few days back with a sigh. I would try it another time.

Another time turned up a lot sooner than anticipated. Last night, while eating dinner with Urmi at an Asian restaurant near work, she asked at the end of the meal, "Do you know a restaurant with good Szechuan dishes somewhere in Munich? And I had to admit, I didn't. But I promised to ask my friend Christian, who along with his wife Anna, is the authority on all things Chinese in this city.

I asked - "why Szechuan?" and she said it was simply her favorite kind of Chinese food. Ok. I've always been intrigued by Szechuan Chinese. In general I like spicy, and Szechuan fits the bill. But in particular, I have always been intrigued by Szechuan peppers. More on them in a bit. So Urmi was the catalyst behind tonight's dinner. I had most of the ingredients, and finally enough of a push to dig that recipe out of the folder again.

What makes Szechuan cooking unique? Wikipedia tells us...

Szechuan cuisine, Szechwan cuisine, or Sichuan cuisine (Chinese: 四川菜; pinyin: Sichuancai or Chinese: 川菜; pinyin: chuancai) is a style of Chinese cuisine originating in Sichuan Province of southwestern China famed for bold flavors, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavour of the Sichuan peppercorn (花椒). Peanuts, sesame paste and ginger are also prominent ingredients in Szechuan cooking.

And that recipe I had downloaded a few weeks back could be neatly categorized as classical Szechaun: Dan Dan Mian - otherwise knows as "street peddler's noodles." Put the word "street peddler" in front of almost any dish and my ears will start to glow in anticipation of finding out ancient secrets of the kitchen/simple and delicious food....Dan Dan Mien fits nicely into that category of simple and delicious. Noodles, with a few spoonfuls of spicy meat, some flash-scalded greens, all swimming in a peanuty broth, topped with scatterings of coriander and scallions, and a couple shakes of chili and sesame oil. Truly yum.

A couple years ago, when coming back to Munich from Singapore, I smuggled brought back Szechuan peppercorns with me. I had actually never cooked with them, but I was convinced that there was no way I was going to find them in Munich (not true - they are here), I knew they were not available in the US (From 1968 to 2005, the United States Food and Drug Administration banned the importation of Sichuan peppercorns because they were found to be capable of carrying citrus canker) and I wanted to bring any obscure spices with me because I didn't know when I would be back in Asia.

Now you need to know that Szechuan peppercorns are kinda cool. Also from Wikipedia:

Sichuan pepper (or Szechuan pepper) is the outer pod of the tiny fruit of a number of species in the genus Zanthoxylum widely grown and consumed in Asia as a spice. Despite the name, it is not related to black pepper or to chili peppers.

Sichuan pepper has a unique aroma and flavor that is not hot or pungent like black or white pepper, or chili peppers. Instead, it has slight lemony overtones and creates a tingly numbness in the mouth (caused by its 3% of hydroxy-alpha-sanshool) that sets the stage for hot spices... "they produce a strange tingling, buzzing, numbing sensation that is something like the effect of carbonated drinks or of a mild electrical current (touching the terminals of a nine-volt battery to the tongue).

It looks like this:


How could you not want to try to cook with it?

Ironically, I still hadn't until tonight.

For Dan Dan Mian, you toast the peppercorns in a pan until they begin to brown and become aromatic. And they were VERY aromatic - somewhere between spicy and pungent. But not like chilies, which will make your eyes burn if you are not careful. Generally when I start toasting chilies, the cats go running out of the kitchen. Was not a problem this evening.

There are a ton of different recipes out there, and who knows what the really AUTHENTIC version is, but I had the feeling that I was at least close. The last time I ate Dan Dan Mian was actually not so long ago - when I was in London in August. I had been out with a friend from Singapore, Nichole, who lives there now with her husband and daughters. We met up and caught up, ducking into a Chinese noodle restaurant after a glass of wine at a pub near my hotel. Admittedly, my first attempt tonight was not as good as that restaurant's, but the rich flavors and tingling, numbing peppercorns on the tip of my tongue tell me it's worth trying again....

Here's the recipe I used. (I had to adapt a bit, as I did not have black vinegar (used rice wine vinegar) and also did not have Chinese sesame paste and had to make due with middle-eastern tahini. And went with spinach rather than pea shoots)





P.S. I *did not* make my own noodles, I bought fresh Chinese noodles at the Asian grocer near work - JUST FINE.