bivs99

Ben, I'm younger than you, but my memory of the immigration and food patterns is similar. I've lived in NYC all my life, and I remember when Sichuan restaurants first arrived in the 70's--the food was seen as exotic, and so very hot. I remember going to places in Chinatown like Say Eng Look (also known as 456) to eat what we called Szechuan food then, but it's funny--my memory of the dishes (hot and sour soup, shrimp with seaweed, lion's head, etc.) doesn't square with what I know now about Sichuan food. Then when "Szechuan" became popular, it sort of got dumbed down, and everything became some kind of "Szechuan/Hunan/Canton" hybrid junk. It's only in the last few years, when places like Wu Liang Ye and Grand Sichuan arrived, that we've gotten back to "real" Sichuan food (or maybe experienced it for the first time?). Even today, though, NYC's Chinatown is dominated by southern Chinese immigrants. The Toyshanese are the oldest, largest and most established group, and their tastes seem to dominate what is available in the stores in "central" Chinatown. You have to go a lot further east (like East Broadway or Grand Street) to find the stores frequented by the more recent immigrants. There are probably even more of them in Flushing (Queens), but I'm not at all familiar with the Flushing Chinatown.

Thanks for your advice. I'm honored.

Thanks for the welcome. As to the peppers, I searched online for them too, and the only sources I found were in the UK! This seems strange to me, given the much larger Chinese immigrant population in the US. Perhaps US Chinese call the peppers by some other name. In the meantime, I am going to keep looking. It seems weird that I'd have to order this sort of thing from England, when it must be out there somewhere--just have to figure out where to look.

Hello everyone. I am new around here, and have read this Sichuan Peppercorn thread with interest. I am a native New Yorker, so I think I know all about Chinese food (LOL), but I have never tried making Sichuan food in my own kitchen until recently. This is largely for medical reasons, as I have developed a health problem that requires me to live totally salt-free. [Except for a once-a-year splurge at Wu Liang Ye or Grand Sichuan!] Therefore, I have to come up with homemade substitutes for many Chinese ingredients, with an occasional tiny pinch of the "real stuff" to recreate the taste. It sounds insane, but I enjoy the challenge. I recently started my Sichuan adventures with Fuschia Dunlop's book. I went down to Chinatown yesterday to buy ingredients, but left largely frustrated, as the stores I visited (KMF et al) don't seem to have many Sichuan ingredients. My search for the elusive peppercorns brought me to this site, and I just ordered some from CMC. (Thanks so much for the tip!) But I've also been utterly unable to find those famous "facing-heaven" peppers. Any idea where I might be able to buy them? Thanks so much for your help.