The search for mala ends in Chinatown

Ever since we returned from China, I've been craving Chinese food. I don't mean chow mein from the local take out place. I mean real Chinese food, the spicy goodness that we ate from street vendors and in little hole-in-the-wall restaurants all over Beijing. 

We wanted spice. We wanted Szechuan.

With that in mind, Jacob and I did a little bit of research and ended up in Chinatown at an unassuming restaurant called Z & Y.  It was packed, and we eyed a dish that looked like a huge plate of chili peppers. I had a strong feeling we had come to the right place.

The very first dish we ate (spicy numbing beef tender) surprised us with the tongue-tingling Chinese spice called mala. This little peppercorn-like nugget doesn't pack the typical heat. It's more of a tingling and numbing sensation that can be overwhelming at first. I'll confess, the first time I tasted it in China I wasn't so sure. By the end of our visit, though, I was hooked. I was thrilled to find it again in the US.

At the waitress's suggestion, we also tried the spicy fish with flaming chili oil,  and we had to go for the chicken with the explosive chili pepper, that dish we had seen on other tables that lived up to its name, being indeed an explosion of chilis. We also had the house cold noodle, another pleasantly hot dish.

We had some people in the party who don't eat meat and weren't into the intense spice, and they were more than happy with the vegetables - the dry sauteed string beans, the bean curd family style, and the spicy eggplant in a clay pot. A few people actually thought the vegetables stole the show.

I am very happy now that I've gotten my Chinese food fix, although I think I'll continue to seek out authentic Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area.

Here are the details:

Z & Y
655 Jackson St.
SF, CA 94133
Phone: 415-981-8988