Sansho Buttons

Sansho buttons are the same flower bud as what the folks at koppertcress call Sechuan buttons, it seems the name Sechuan button is a figment of someone's imagination as research shows it has no verifiable connection to the Sechuan province of China. In addition Koppercress makes it rather annoying and cryptic to get thier products. Thankfully in America, there are always other avenues of progress. Take a look at Sungrown's website.

Click HERE.

Comments

[ruby]

try the farmers market (n.y.) near park avenue.
there is a kind of nursery stand and they sell
a "toothache" plant a.k.a sechuan button.....

[Al]

Assuming that these are the flowering buds of the plant that produces Sichuan pepper, the naming makes some sense: Sichuan pepper and sansho pepper, despite what some foodies would have you believe, are botanically the same species, zanthoxylum piperitum:
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Zant_pip.html
There are a couple of related species (from Korea and Nepal) that are taxonomologically distinct from z. piperitum, but the Chinese Sichuan pepper and the Japanese Sansho pepper are identical.

[shola olunloyo]

Al, from what I gather the peppercorns are from a different plant, again I cant confirm that, just what I have been told by a spice trader in Japan.
Yes Sichuan peppercorns are the same as Sansho berries.

Reuven do you mean the Union Square Market ?
I am there most saturdays and havent seem them there.

[Phil]

So, how would you use these? They're cool-looking, but how do they taste?

[shola olunloyo]

It actually tastes like a mild electric shock.
I have seen someone use it in an unagi dish at a sushi competition and the chef called it the "electric eel".

[Detlef Bruck-Willberg]

What is called "Sansho buttons" or "Sechuan buttons" here has nothing to do with the Japanese/Chinese/Korean pepper tree (Zanthoxylum) - except probably for a similar numbing taste, but is actually the flower bud of Spilanthes oleracea, called also "paracress". Look here to find everything one needs to know about it: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Spil_acm.html.

Best wishes

Detlef