Mala sauce or "numbing sauce", as it numbs your tongue, consists of Sichuanese peppercorn, oil, and chili peppers. The restaurant I was taken out to by a friend upon returning to Hong Kong last week was called "Little Chili" and is located in Hong Kong's North Point district.

I absolutely loved the shrimp dish, doused in oil, which was fried with bright red chili peppers and peppercorns. The table of us ate the shrimp like shrip-crackers without peeling off the shell, popping tiny shrimp after shrimp into our senseless mouths, as instructed by our host.

Other contenders included Sichuan-style frog legs, egg (which was served as scrambled egg white with the unbroken yolk in the center), and a beautiful, crispy, sweet and sour fish with pineapple.

If it weren't so far away I'd park myself on the small, hard wooden stool as much as my tongue could stand it!