Sichuan Spice Blend Debuts!

Our eldest child, Phil, is a passionate adventurer.  He fell in love with Asia in his teens.  Two years ago, he ventured back to China to study and live there for eight months.  To visit Phil, and also wanting to better understand this part of the world, Steve and I had our own adventure traveling the countryside on a three-week tour of this beautiful part of the world.

We loved seeing the Longji Rice Terraces and the amazing Night Market in Xian.  One of my personal favorites was enjoying the food in Chengdu.

Chengdu is the gastronomic center of China.  The flavors of the food were among the best I ever have tasted in my life.  As you might expect, I am apt to head for the local spice market on my travels.  I’m always looking to find unique spices to bring back to my culinary partner, Jane, and on this trip I bundled up a bag of Sichuan Peppercorns.

Sichuan peppercorns are known for their lemony overtones and numbing effect, and were Jane’s starting point in creating our new blend.  She then added the right balance of ginger, star anise and cloves to create our third whole spice infusion.   As with all of our whole spice infusions, this blend is hand crafted in small batches.  It will make its debut this Saturday at the Good Food Festival in Chicago

We did save a limited supply for sale on our website, so if you are looking for a delicious chicken, beef or tofu noodle soup, click here.

We have more good news to share  – our Zen blends are taking off!   As we grow
we find ourselves spending less time at our computers and more time in front of our customers doing sampling events at various grocery markets around Chicago.  We love getting input at the stores.  With time away from the office we have decided to ask fellow slow cooking enthusiasts to add their unique voices to our weekly blog.  With that in mind, if you have a recipe that you would like to share with our followers please send it along!

Hope to see you at the Good Food Festival in Chicago this Saturday, March 18th to learn, network, eat, shop and experience Good Food in Chicago!

Zen Moment

Variety is the spice of love.

-Helen Rowland