麻辣豆腐 málà dòufu numb and spicy tofu

Mala tofu or mapo tofu you can find in almost any Chinese restaurant. It's homestyle cooking, and you can even buy seasoning packets at regular grocery stores in the U.S. that just ask you to add tofu and ground pork. 麻 má means numb. It also means the sensation you get when your feet are asleep, or in British English - pins and needles. This spice I have never eaten outside of China, but I definitely craved it when I was in the states. The flavor comes from 花椒 huājiāo or flower pepper that comes from Sichuan. It is pictured below. It will make your whole mouth numb. This dish is fairly spicy. Mala tofu is also sometimes called 麻婆 mápó tofu. I cannot tell the difference between the two if there is one. Mapo means pock-marked, and supposedly comes from a pock-mark faced woman who used to serve the dish in Chengdu.