Chengdu (成都) is the capital of Sichuan province. During the era of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei (刘备) founded the the kingdom of Shu-Han (蜀汉; 221-263) with Chengdu as its capital. People from Sichuan love to eat “Mala” which means “numb and spicy”. The tingly numbness is caused by Sichuan pepper “hua jiao” (花椒) or prickly ash seed pods. I like Sichuan foods, but I just don’t like the numbness I would get after chewing on some “hua jiao” seed pods, just can’t understand why they like the numbness.

Quite a bit of a mess created, but they were yummy!

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