Malatang

The word málà is composed of the Chinese characters for "numbing" (麻) and "spicy (hot)" (辣), referring to the feeling in the mouth after eating the sauce.

Continually plying their trade in damp, foggy conditions made workers on the river feel chronically cold and debilitated, so when they were hungry, they would cook herbs in a pot and add pungent Sichuan pepper and ginger to the resulting soup to banish the miserable dampness.

Realising the growing popularity of Malatang, street vendors soon cashed in on the business opportunity that this afforded and spread the dish far and wide throughout China.

[2][3] Typically a table with a big and flat saucepan is set up on the street, with a large number of ingredients in skewers being cooked in a mildly spicy broth.

[5] Some businesses have benefited from adding poppy seed pods, which are illegal in China, when cooking malatang.