Vietnamese in SE Michigan?

Thanks, I knew of Annan, but have always had a thing for the lower-end cafe style joints too!

somedimsum in General Midwest Archive

Have you ever eaten something so highly spiced it altered the taste of plain water?!

You are very welcome. Yes, it can be disconcerting in too large a dose. Szechuan pepper is also one of the ingredients in five spice powder, but in insufficient quantity to really render that mouth numbing sensation.

These days, you can buy dried Szechuan pepper at just about any Asian market. It usually comes whole, and when using it, you must discard the round peppercorn-like seeds and only mash or grind the hulls. Combined with chiles, you get the "málå" or "numbing-hot" effect of Szechuan cuisine, the idea being that the numbing helps counter the intensity of the capsiacin in the chiles.

As a final aside, the FDA banned the importation of the pods up until a few years ago, and some people mistakenly think that the reason was for a toxicity within the plant, which is not the case. At issue was the possible spread of a citrus canker that could have possibly infected the US citrus crop, which is no longer a worry.

somedimsum in Not About Food

Have you ever eaten something so highly spiced it altered the taste of plain water?!

Yes. My guess is that the dish contained a large amount of Szechuan pepper. Or, more accurately, the husks from around the pepper seeds, which is the part that is used and central to Szechuan cooking.

The "pepper" actually a mountainous tiny fruit, not related to black pepper or chile pepper at all, but in the same plant family that the Citrus genus, which explains the sour and lemony flavors. As for that Hall's analogy, you are right on, as the numbing sensation that menthol and eucalyptus achieves is not too dissimilar from what Szechuan pepper does: it contains a strong hydroxy-alpha compound that creates tingling numbness in your mouth which can deaden your sensitivity and prepare you for a wallop of heat that often comes next, from proper chiles. Yes, all the rice, yogurt or milk in the world won't do much to dissipate that sensation, where it would with countering the capsiacin in hot chiles.

somedimsum in Not About Food

Whole Foods fired a man for taking a tuna sandwich destined for the trash

Yes, please don't bring in the McDonalds lawsuit, as you will find that this case was only brought after the national chain refused to lower the temperature settings on their coffee pots, after numerous instances of customers being burned and filing complaints.
( see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants).

The real issue here is in how this employee was terminated, and the implication that firing him for misconduct saves WF on unemployment claims. More investigation would be merited to make sure that this is not a systemic WF labor practice. That would be ugly.

somedimsum in Not About Food