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A popular menu ranked on top of the chart that every dish has to have a taste or an ingredient of it is “Mala.” Most of you might have seen it at the Mala Hot Pot or Mala BBQ restaurant, but do you know what Mala is exactly, where it comes from and what are the properties of Mala? Let’s find out!
Mala consists of 2 Chinese characters which are Ma, meaning numb, and La, meaning spiciness, when combined means “ The spiciness that makes you feel numb.” You will feel hot, spicy and numb when you eat it. Mala is very popular and originates from Sichuan Province, China. It is usually stew with oil and made as sauce to season in other dishes. It is usually put in soup, applied on vegetables or meat before grilling and used in a noodle as well. People normally eat Mala in winter. In conclusion, Mala is an ingredient that is used in seasoning the dishes to taste spicy and feel numb.
Mala is made from Sichuan Pepper or Hua Jiao. It look similar to Thai Pepper and it tastes like Makwaen (Zanthoxylum limonella). The ingredients to make Mala are dried chili, ground dried chillies, doubanjiang sauce, clove, garlic, star anise, black cardamom, caraway, ginger, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Dried chili will be ground into mala powder or will be stewed with oil until it becomes mala sauce to be used in cooking foods. As mentioned before, Makwaen has the similar taste to Mala, so Thai people use makwaen instead of Mala. With the same taste and small seed shape as Hua Jiao, it is usually put in food whether it is curry, stir fry or soup. Makwaen can add the spiciness to the same level as Mala.
There are a lot of benefits behind the spiciness of Hua Jiao. Spiciness will help expel the intestinal air, cure colds, and dizziness, and also help to drive menstruation for women. The ingredients of Hua Jiao are also used as a heart tonic and blood tonic. Mala also provides good metabolism and warmth to our body.
According to the current food trend of Thai people, Mala is used as an ingredient for BBQ such as applying the Mala sauce on vegetables, beef, and pork before grilling, then covering it with Mala powder to add more spiciness to BBQ. In addition, they can be made into Hoe Pot, fried, curried, or used as a substitute for chili powder.
