''Mala'' is a

numbing Hypoesthesia or numbness is a common side effect of various medical conditions that manifests as a reduced sense of touch or sensation, or a partial loss of sensitivity to sensory stimuli. In everyday speech this is generally referred to as num ...

and

pungent Pungency ( ) is the taste of food commonly referred to as spiciness, hotness or heat, found in foods such as chili peppers. Highly pungent tastes may be experienced as unpleasant. The term piquancy ( ) is sometimes applied to foods with a lower ...

seasoning Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, and/or salts, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". Salt may ...

derived from Szechuan peppercorn and chili. Most commonly, ''mala'' is made into a sauce (麻辣醬 ''málàjiàng'') by simmering it in oil and other spices. Characteristic of

Sichuan cuisine Sichuan cuisine or Sichuanese cuisine, alternatively romanized as Szechwan cuisine or Szechuan cuisine (, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is a style of Chinese cuisine originating from Sichuan province and the neighboring Chongqing munic ...

, particularly Chongqing cuisine, it has become one of the most popular and synthesized ingredients in

Chinese cuisine Chinese cuisine comprises cuisines originating from Greater China, China, as well as from Overseas Chinese, Chinese people from other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and the historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine ...

Etymology

The term ''málà'' is a combination of two

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

s: "numbing" ( 麻) and "spicy (piquant)" ( 辣), referring to the feeling in the mouth after eating the sauce. The numbness is caused by its characteristic Szechuan pepper, which contains 3% hydroxy-alpha-sanshool.

History

The precise origins of the dish are unclear, but many sources attribute its development to night markets in

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

that targeted pier workers in the 19th to 20th century. Its strong flavors and oils helps preserve foods and mask the unpopular smells of blood and offal. Despite the strong flavor by itself, various dipping sauces are often served to make the texture of cooked meat smooth and oily, and the tastes more complex. Common sauces include

sesame oil Sesame oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. The oil is one of the earliest-known crop-based oils. Worldwide mass modern production is limited due to the inefficient manual harvesting process required to extract the oil. ...

with garlic, oyster oil, or fermented soybean curd ('' doufu ru''). The sauce is used in a variety of ways, from stirfry, stews, and soup, to being used in hotpot or as a dipping sauce. In the

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

and

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

provinces ''mala'' powder (麻辣粉; pinyin: málàfĕn) is used on snacks and street foods, such as

stinky tofu Stinky tofu ( zh, c=臭豆腐, p=chòu dòufu) is a Chinese form of fermented tofu that has a strong odor. It is usually sold at night markets or roadside stands as a snack, or in lunch bars as a side dish, rather than in restaurants. Traditio ...

fried potatoes Fried potatoes are a dish or a component of other dishes (such as '' Bauernfrühstück'') essentially consisting of potatoes which have been fried or deep-fried in hot cooking oil often with the addition of salt and other seasonings. They are o ...

, and

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

d meat and vegetables.

Ingredients

The sauce is made primarily of dried

chili pepper Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...

chili powder Chili powder (also spelled chile, chilli, or, alternatively, powdered chili) is the dried, pulverized fruit of one or more varieties of chili pepper, sometimes with the addition of other spices (in which case it is also sometimes known as chili p ...

, broad bean paste, Szechuan peppercorn,

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...

star anise ''Illicium verum'' (star anise or badian, Chinese star anise, star anise seed, star aniseed and star of anise) is a medium-sized evergreen tree native to South China and northeast Vietnam. Its star-shaped pericarps harvested just before ripen ...

black cardamom ''Amomum subulatum'', also known as black cardamom, hill cardamom, Bengal cardamom, greater cardamom, Indian cardamom, Nepal cardamom, winged cardamom, big cardamon, or brown cardamom, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Zingiberaceae. ...

fennel Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

and

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

. These ingredients are simmered with beef

tallow Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton suet, primarily made up of triglycerides. In industry, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton suet. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain technical criteria, inc ...

and

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of edible plants. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed ...

for many hours, and packed into a jar. Other herbs and spices, such as sand ginger, '' Angelica dahurica'' and

poppy seeds Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the poppy plant (''Papaver somniferum''). The tiny, kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. It is still widely used in many countries ...

, can be added to create a unique flavor profile. Traditionally, a restaurant hired a chef specializing in making this sauce; the recipes were kept secret to the chef himself. Today, prepared ''mala'' sauce can easily be found in supermarkets, and chain restaurants often produce their own sauce on a large scale, while many others still blend their own. Like curry, there is a constant debate about the 'best' recipe and numerous variations are available on the market.

Dishes

''Mala'' sauce is used in many dishes. * Malatang (麻辣燙): vegetable and meat skewers served in a ''mala'' soup. For home preparation,

bouillon Bouillon can refer to: Food * Bouillon (broth), a simple broth ** Court-bouillon, a quick broth * Bouillon (soup), a Haitian soup * Bouillon (restaurant), a traditional type of French restaurant ** Bouillon Chartier, a bouillon restaurant fou ...

-style cubes of instant mala have become popular. * ''Mala'' hotpot (麻辣火鍋) * ''Mala'' shaokao (麻辣燒烤): ''mala'' barbeque * Mala xiang guo (麻辣香鍋): ''mala'' stirfry * Mala duck neck (麻辣鴨脖子) * Mouthwatering chicken (口水雞): Chicken cold cuts in ''mala'' sauce * Fuqi feipian (夫妻肺片): beef tendon, tongue, tripe, and sometimes also lung, served with oily ''mala'' sauce * Dapanji (大盤雞, lit. "big plate chicken"): a hearty chicken, potato and noodle stew flavored with ''mala''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mala Sauce Chili pepper dishes Chinese condiments Chinese sauces Chongqing cuisine Sichuan cuisine

Etymology

History

Ingredients

Dishes

See also

References