July 2023: Sichuan Ground Chilies Back In Stock!

Xiang la (fragrant hot) roasted ground chilies are a mix of three popular Sichuan chilies: 

• Er jing tiao: Low spiciness, strong fragrance, very strong coloring ability
• Zi dan tou: Moderate spiciness, strong fragrance, strong coloring ability
• Xiao mi la: High spiciness, weak fragrance, weak coloring ability

The combination produces a deep-red, moderately hot chili oil (la jiao you), a basic pantry essential used in abundance to dress "liangban" cold salads, noodles, dumplings, wontons and more.

Or if you prefer your chili oil to be chunky and crunchy, the blend is a must-have for the most flavorful and colorful chili crisp.

Roasted Ground Chilies has 123 5-star ratings by customers who won't make chili oil without it and one 1-star rating by a guy who wanted it to blow his head off. Sichuan chilies are hot but not too hot, and are equally about flavor, so you can—and want to—eat them in abundance. 

Cao guo, or tsao ko, has gone by various names in English. A member of the ginger family, it has long been called Chinese black cardamom because it is similar to Indian black cardamom in looks and taste. But it seems to have been recently reclassified from the Amomum genus of cardamom to the Asian classification of Lanxangia tsao-ko. To make matters more confusing, it is also sometimes called grass fruit in English. 

Whatever you call it, cao guo is delicious! The big round pods are smoked during the drying process and have an incredible smoky layer on top of the camphor-ish flavor of the inner seeds. We throw a pod or two of cao guo into almost every long-cooked braise or stew. 

Use the whole pod, slightly crushed to release the inner flavor. (Some Sichuan chefs use only the empty shell pod.) Or crack open the pods with a cleaver or other heavy implement, extract the seeds from the sticky interior and grind them for use in the spice mixes that are particularly popular in Yunnan, where they are grown. 

This Chinese Spice Collection includes four popular spices with a 10% discount off the individual prices! 

These four spices provide quintessential flavors to Chinese cooking and are used frequently in braises and stews, chili oil, hot pot and beyond. They are all single-origin spices—grown in a village or small growing area in Guangxi, Yunnan or Guangdong—and are used extensively throughout the country. 

Collection includes:

• Star anise (ba jiao)
• Cassia bark (gui pi)
• Sand ginger (sha jiang)
• Smoked cao guo (Chinese black cardamom)