Pimenta de Sichuan

Ma before la: the tingle opens the mouth, the bean paste fills it.

Blank custard texture makes the buzz the only thing happening.

Numbing dulls the pain receptors, so you keep eating the heat.

Numbing plus cooling. Two different kinds of anaesthetic, stacked.

Numbing tingle over an otherwise very literal-minded crunch.

Numbing tingle over a vegetable that already carries its own mild heat.

Numbing tingle distracts from a flavour some diners never get past.

Cold poached meat plus tingle; the texture contrast is the dish.

Toasted fat carries the hydroxy-sanshool further round the mouth.

Sour sharpens the tingle into something almost electric.

Numbing rides in the same oil as the burn but on an entirely different nerve.

Numbing tingle over a soft leaf; texture from a spice instead of the vegetable.

Numbing tingle against a vegetable whose whole job is texture, not taste.

Numbing tingle over a crisp mild stem, the standard cold-dish treatment.

Fat needs an interruption. Numbness works where acid would be dull.

Cumin-lamb skewers: the buzz keeps the fat from settling on the palate.

The numbing resets the tongue so the second slice tastes like the first.

Numbing over fat — the tingle needs oil to spread or it stays on the lips.

Numbing tingle is a texture too. Stack it on the rubbery snap.

Sanshool is fat-soluble; warm the husks slowly or you get dust, not tingle.

Numbing tingle plus a fruit with no acid: the mouth invents the acid itself.

Numbing masks the last of the bitterness the boiling did not remove.

Shared limonene. Citrus arrives, then your mouth quietly goes numb.

Cocoa butter melts at body heat and spreads the tingle with it.

Numbing over sweet crab. The tingle registers as extra sweetness.

Two numbing plants from two continents. Stack them and the mouth stops filing reports.

Floral berry, floral corn. The numbness makes the sugar last longer.