Today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article about Sichuan* peppercorn's comeback in the US after years of being banned. About a week ago I had answered a few questions posed by writer Rebekah Denn about the spice's role in Sichuan cuisine. In the article are a few quotes, as well as the Sichuan Cucumber Salad recipe I posted in January.

If you have time, check out the Seattle PI's story!

*I use the spelling "Sichuan" throughout my site, where as Seattle PI uses "Szechuan." I base my spelling off Pinyin, the most common Standard Mandarin romanization. "Szechuan" is a throwback to the days before the US adopted Pinyin-based spellings (other examples: Peking is now Beijing, Canton is now Guangdong.) While "Sichuan" is becoming the standard in English publications, "Szechuan" is still heavily used. Both are correct, but this footnote is just to lessen any potential confusion.