Sansho & Fate

There is a word for the situation whereby something stumbled across for the first time appears on a seemingly frequent basis thereafter. I can't remember it. I will call it "sansho".

Sansho is the name of the herb pepper that we had with Unagi recently ... later, that same day, across the other side of town we came across a sprig of the original - from the kinome shrub.


As if in a scene from a culinary Yimou Zhang movie, the kinome sprig is caught midair by the deft hand movement of Steve's dining companion ...

A little bit more digging revealed that the kinome shrub actually produces szechuan peppercorns (these are the shells surrounding the seeds). The uwajimaya site explains the taste as "being reminiscent of mint, basil with a hint of anise" - I would say more than a hint. It also reckons that the pepper has a lemon-like flavour.

That's sansho for you!

p.s. if anyone knows the name for the sensation mentioned in the first line, please mail me...