Nah the Sichuan pepper is really old, native to China (and the Himalayas in general) and has been cultivated in Sichuan for centuries. Their cooking nowadays uses the American chili pepper as well because it's delicious, but the mala spice of Sichuan peppers prepared them for the spicy chilis of the Americas.

[–] CliffordBigRedDog@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Yea but alot of the spicy dishes still use the New World Chili, why didnt those rub off in the coastal provinces

[–] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

My point is that when your cooking already incorporates numbing spice, it's easy to see the possibilities with chilis. If your cuisine, like the costal provinces, is defined by not having that numbing spice you're not going to be very inclined to use chilis either. The different types of Chinese cuisine are quite old.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Sichuan peppers are not spicy because of capsaicin iirc and are more like a peppercorn than a chili (though not closely related to either). They aren't the same sort of spicy. Its more like a tingly/numbing sensation.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

{麻辣|málà} refers to the flavor combination of {四川|Sìchuān} numbing peppercorn ({麻|má}) and American capsaicin peppers ({辣|là})