Chili peppers are not native to China. I have read that all chili pepper varieties trace their origin to Latin America, but I do not know if this is true.

Portuguese traders first brought chili peppers to China in the 1670s. The climate and soils in the southern provinces are the most hospitable to raising chili peppers, so many southern Chinese cuisines feature chili peppers in their recipes.

Of the eight major cuisines in China, Sichuan (Szechuan), Hunan, and Cantonese (Guangzhou) are world famous. Sichuan and Hunan make heavy use of chili peppers. The hottest are the millet or grain of rice pepper, called Xiaomi la. This pepper is similar to the Thai Chili, but not as hot.

NOTE: Sichuan peppercorns are not actually peppercorns. They are the husk of the berry from an ash tree. You will find these in our Chinese Spices section.

In the West, it is currently impossible to get fresh Chinese chili peppers, so you have to use the dried form. Most of our recipes use dried peppers, so this is not a problem. For those that require a fresh pepper, you can approximate the flavor and texture by rehydrating dried peppers, if they are of good quality.

There are several varieties of Chinese chili peppers. We use four of these types in recipes on My Chinese Home Kitchen:

• Xiaomi la
• Chao tian jiao
• Er jing tiao
• Tien tsin